Life as a Leach

They can't wait to have one of their own again!

Matt was here with us at RMH for three full days, and we only had feeding therapy on one of them!  He is never here long, and when he is it seems like all we do is watch other people feed Abby or feed her ourselves.  So it was wonderful being able to do things here as a family of four. Here's just a sneak peak at a few of the activities we enjoyed together... A Nationals baseball game for Matt's birthday... The Museum of Natural History... The Vietnam Memorial... Fireworks at the inner harbor of Baltimore... Drumming at Port Discovery... I've missed my husband and the kids have missed their daddy.  It's hard having your family split in various ways for weeks on end, so this weekend was a good one.  Stay tuned for more detailed posts!  :)

I have lots of fun pictures of recent events on my camera right now!  I just have to help them make their way to my computer, then edit them.  This all takes time, which I am very short on at the present time...between two crazy kids, feeding Abby every meal, doing work for the training I am leading next week, and managing a household from 2 hours away, I don't have lots of time.  Add very spotty internet to the mix and blogging is pretty much not going to happen too often.  Sorry! We had a great 4th of July with our little family of four.  This is actually the first time all four of us have had the opportunity to have some fun together since we've been up here, because Matt is only up here for short amounts of time and most everything is centered around feeding.  I'll save the details for another post, but our holiday included Port Discovery, fireworks, and RMH friends! Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more that Abby is suffering from separation a...

Sweet Teresa , who you have heard about before, went to be with Jesus this afternoon.  She got her miracle and now has a beautiful, whole heart once again.  The surgeon took a big risk with this surgery, but the pressure was just too high.  Teresa was surrounded by her family and even got her wish of having her ears pierced!  Please pray for her family--so, so sad.

Caleb is officially up here with Abby and me now, and life is certainly not dull!  (Abby keeps things lively too, but Caleb just adds an interesting  element to things!) Yesterday in the car, he informed me that he has an entire world in his head.  He calls it his "Imagine-Nation."   Get it?!   :) Today, we took Abby to feeding school, stayed for breakfast, then came back to RMH.  We put together a Lego set, watched some cartoons, ate lunch, and snuck in a little writing practice (it's amazing that just drawing a picture to go along with his writing makes it so much more bearable!).  We'll head back to the hospital in a little while so that we are there in time for snack.  It's unfair for me to expect Caleb to stay at the hospital all day, so this seemed to work out well. Tomorrow, we may try to go to the zoo if the weather cooperates.  Otherwise, we'll probably spend a few hours at the Science Center.  I want to do something speci...

Feeding therapy has not been as drastic a change as I had hoped it would be. As is Abby's way, she takes four steps forward and ten steps back. While drinking milk was "easier" for her than eating solids before we started Feeding Day, it has completely reversed now. She eats solids like a champ and doesn't seem to really care about what you put in her mouth. Drinking the Pediasure is becoming a major battle, complete with lots of negative behaviors and pleads to, "Put me in time out!!" (Not cool...not cool at all!) So we have a new plan. Our therapist decided to back way, way up and only give her two ounces of milk during the meal. She saved the other two ounces for her to drink in the playroom. She also has started a more immediate sticker incentive where she gets a sticker for every good sip she takes. That sounds ridiculous, and in some ways it is! But it seemed to work today at lunch and we're hoping that it will be a very short-term solution to ...