Eating & Pooping

Sunni is looking and feeling a lot better today.  Hallelujah!

She got her first food on Wednesday, December 19, at 74 days old! Wow!  Hard to believe anyone can go that long without food.  She is not eating with her mouth, of course, and it is not even going into her stomach (but it is a start!).  She is getting 8.4cc's continuously every hour.  It is not breast milk though, for now.  It is a lower calorie formula. It is pumped through the yellow tube you see in her picture (below) and bypasses her stomach straight to her intestines.

She pooped today!  A real-ish poop!  Sorry if thats TMI for you but for me it is EXCITING!! Shawn even got a picture of it sent to him today. lol  If we can just get on a regular BM schedule that would be awesome.  That means her body is starting to wake up and work and accept food.  Eventually she will not need that yellow tube and we will be able to feed her stomach.  When that happens we will be feeding her through her g-tube.  That tube was surgically placed in her abdomen that will feed her stomach directly.  I now I have mentioned this several times before but I will say it again....it will be a long road before she takes anything by mouth.  She has a terrible oral aversion because she associates anything being put in her mouth as a negative thing.  Her own fingers gag her.  It is heartbreaking.  If you want to know more about g-tubes this is a good site-- http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgery/g_tube.html

Currently Sunni is just recovering from surgery, working on her breathing, eating, and pooping.  That is sounding more and more like a real baby.  Now if we could start removing some of those lines & tubes going  in her.  She will be 11 weeks old tomorrow :)

I took the boys & Shawn to the airport yesterday to send them home.  I was sad that I had to spend doomsday and then Christmas alone.  Well, when I woke up still alive today (haha) I had something telling me that I needed to figure out a way to make it home for Christmas.  I am very, VERY torn on this decision. Sunni is doing good and has great nurses to take care of her.  She is really young and will not remember this time.  But my boys are old enough to remember and I sort of feel like I need to be there on Christmas for them (and me too).  So I am trying to figure everything out.  Prayers for clarity on this difficult choice I have to make would be appreciated.  I wish I could be two places at once, dangit.

Oh, and the bills are finally showing their ugly, expensive, outrageous, INSANE faces.  I saw that her repair surgery alone was $24,000.  I wish I were a surgeon.  Ok, not really.  But that is barely under what I make for an entire year! LOL

Her First Feed

Adorable!

Merry Christmas! 

Perry, at it again!  He made mustaches for her, her mobile, and ALL her animals. :)