She Will Amaze You

This day feels like it went on forever, and it's only 7:46pm.

Jakob went to bed early last night, at 7:30pm, as part of a new bedtime routine. I know that when Ellie comes home she is going to be trained, and she already loves her schedule, so ideally, I will manage to get a good routine in place for Jakob, now. He woke up early, which is fine for me, and early for us means 7:45am :)

Ellie's day consists of waking at 7am, feeding at 7:30am, having a bath, playing/cuddling until 9am, sleeping until 10:30am, feeding, playing/cuddling until 12pm, sleeping until 1:30pm, feeding, then playing, doing physio/ot until 430pm, feeding, then napping until 6pm. Then she's awake until 7:30pm for her last feed of the day, and then she goes to sleep at 8pm. She sleeps through the night, provided her BiPAP mask stays on.

This morning we got up, had breakfast, then got dressed for the snow, and headed outside to play. I got cold quickly, but the boys were out there for over an hour, making snow angels, throwing snowballs, generally chasing each other around. We are the only unit in our row that has young children, so the backyard snow was pristine. Not entirely sure where the dog next door has been going, we didn't see any yellow snow! I folded laundry, and tidied up the kitchen.

After they came in, we had hot chocolate, and I warmed up last night's leftover turkey chili. Mmmm, so good. We ate lunch around 11:30am, then Jason got ready and went to work. Jakob was tired from all the fresh air, and went down for an hour long nap. Around 1pm, we were ready to face the day again, and went to spend the afternoon with our Ellie-belle. My word, they are adorable together. Jakob just loves Ellie, and Ellie thinks Jakob is the most fascinating person in her world. She is crazy about him.

The three of us snuggled in the big la-z boy chair, until Jakob decided he wanted his own chair, and then they watched a couple movies. There's been a lot of turnover in the ICU this week. People who had been our neighbours for a few weeks went home, and now there are three little babies around us. They're all under a month old, and all almost as big, if not bigger than our big little girl.

Dr. Dee came by for a brief chat, and to tell me how impressed they all are with the progress that Ellie has made in physical strength, level of alertness, and interaction. She said that it's possible Ellie's growth and improved tone might also be reflected in her airway, so now they are considering trialing Ellie on growth hormone as early as the end of next week (trying to get in as much strength before then), and seeing how she does. She did mention that Ellie would have to stay in the ICU for quite a while, and likely until she proves the gh doesn't negatively impact her breathing. She said they will be on alert for emergent situations that might lead to Ellie needing to be intubated, but they're willing to take the chance that she can do well on the gh. I'm so nervous putting it out there, because I don't want to be disappointed, but maybe Ellie will manage not to have to be intubated. Oh, I can only hope, and pray, and believe she has it in her.

We left around 4:45pm, just after her feed, and went to my mom's for a little visit. I hadn't planned on going, but traffic was bad, so it was much easier to stop in there until the rush had passed.

We got home just before 7pm, Jakob went straight into the bath, and I worked out. I feel proud of myself for actually making myself sweat. I didn't do a long workout by any means, just two reps of the circuit we did at the kickoff to Choose to Lose.I did a quick warm up, the 45 seconds each of inch worm, alternating lunges, side lunges, prisoner squats, push ups and step ups, twice. To end my workout, I did three minutes of plank, and a minute on each side of side plank. By the time I was done, Jakob was asking to get out of the bath.

I dried him off, got him ready for bed, read him a few books, sang a couple songs, and turned off the lights. It's now 8pm, and completely silent from his room. I can only hope the routine establishes itself quickly. I can't even begin to explain how nice it is to have a few hours of me time!