Playing with Cousins

We went and played with Eric and Sophia at there new house. The kids loved watching the backhoe scooping the big hole. Noah was pretending to be a backhoe with his spoon.


Sophia sitting in the dirt.

This girl is tougher than both boys! She can get them to do anything.

Running in the beautiful church lawn. They all had a blast chasing each other and running!!






3 cute cousins!! I haven't gotten a good picture with all three kids for a LONG time.

Hospital Day 5 and going home

Good morning sunshine! Ava never had to have her oxygen put on in the night. Yay! That is one step closer to going home. Now to have the chest xray done and sweat chloride test done with good results.

The sweat chloride test being done. It was super cool to watch, but is a very time consuming process. It took about an hour to do the whole test. The little wrist watch looking things are actually tubing that take the sweat off her skin and the sweat turns blue.


Ava's sweat in the test tubes.

Because we were in a pediatric hospital, it was decorated fun everywhere. This tile was on the ceiling right outside Ava's room.

The Dr said the chest xray was improved from the one taken on thursday evening so that is 2/3 of the discharge criteria met. Yay! The results of the sweat chloride test came back and one site had normal levels and the second site was borderline. The Dr said it is difficult to get enough sweat, when kids are her age, for the test to be accurate, so they are going to repeat it in a couple months. All criteria met so we get to go home. Another Dr had already read the echocardiogram (trying to help out the cardiologist on-call), that is why no one could find it, it was already filed away. The only thing the echo showed was a patent foramen ovale, which can be normal for babies her age. So no worries there. The rest of her immunology labs came back within normal limits for her age, so again, Yay! Ava is going to go home with oral antibiotics for 10 days and we have been put on house arrest. As we all know I don't do house arrest, even when I was on bedrest, while pregnant with Noah. We will stay away from Eastside playplace (I swear Noah brings home a cold everytime we go there) and the Pullman library (which will be a bummer, Noah loves to go). Hopefully it will get nice enough to play outside at the parks a lot!!

My mom and I were getting Ava ready to go. I stepped out to the car with a load of stuff and when I get back my mom says Ava smiled at her, twice. No fair!! These are my daughters first smiles, and my mom gets to see them.

Ava in her carseat, ready to say good bye to Sacred Heart forever!!

In our first escape from the hospital, we went shopping at Fred Meyer. Please note I don't do house arrest. We got home around 7pm, and Noah ran to me and yelled, "momma" over and over again. That was the best gift ever to see his face, because I missed him and Andy so much. Andy BBQed chicken for us and we ate great. So much better than cafeteria food!!

Hospital Day 4

Ava got to have her oxygen off again. Her saturations only drop into the high 80s when she is in a deep sleep, so the Dr. changed the oxygen parameters. Now it is okay for her saturations to be down to 87%, without putting oxygen back on as long as she is sleeping.


The Drs. cannot find the echocardiogram that needs to be read so they are searching everywhere to locate those pictures. Hopefully we will know the results soon.

Also lost is some of the blood that needs to be ran for the immunology studies. Argh! This girls blood is precious, and she has no veins left for drawing blood. Fortunately they can do a heal stick to get the needed blood.

On a fantastic note. The results of the CT scan came back and Ava does have a thymus. This is wonderful news! Because without a thymus, Ava wouldn't have an immune system to fight off infections. Kids usually die within the first couple years of life, and even the common cold can be deadly to a kid without an immune system. This is probably the best news thus far, it means that Ava will not have to grow up as the "bubble girl."

My mom came up to stay with me again so I didn't have to be alone. It worked out well, Ava got sick over a long weekend, so my family wasn't at work and could hang out with me. When she came up, she brought some clean clothes for Ava to wear and a cute flower. I kept complaining to my mom how people would call her a boy, so this large flower clearly states she is a she!

And the very best news of all today. The Dr said we would be able to go home tomorrow. The plan is to do a chest xray and a sweat chloride test (to check for cystic fibrosis) in the morning and as long as those are good and she keeps her oxygen off for 24 hours we will get to go home.

Hospital Day 3

My daughter is a trouble maker! She can't seem to allow any IV to last longer than 36 hours. Her 2nd IV of this hospital stay started leaking. So she earned herself a PICC line. The NICU nurses put them in, in the procedure room, so I didn't get to watch. I took the free time to shower and eat breakfast in the cafeteria with my mom and dad. Also while the NICU nurse was putting in her PICC, she took the blood she needed for the immunology studies. Originally the lab said they needed 12ml of blood. HOLY COW! was all I could say, because that is a lot of blood for a baby. Fortunately they only needed 5ml, you just have to talk to the right person.

My parents hung out with me until around 11am and then Andy came up around 1pm and brought us lunch from Red Robin. Yum!


Ava's covered PICC line. She is a kicker so in order to protect the PICC it was super taped and gauzed.

Ava's night nurse didn't like the first "tape to protect" covering on the PICC line because it was so difficult to see the insertion site, so she uncovered it and rewrapped it so it could easily be viewed.



We saw the pulmonologist/immunologist. He said that the first part of the immunology labs were all normal which is great news! We don't have the results of the CT or echocardiogram yet. The pediatrician said her WBCs were 27,000, on thursday which is higher than normal. These are all the results we have at this time.

We tried turning off Ava's oxygen off this evening since she had been off it all day, but she didn't tolerate it, she dropped her sats down into the high 80s again. The rash on her bum is starting to improve. It's amazing how using the right creams will take care of the problem so quickly. That's all for now.

Hospital Day 2

Today was a mostly sit and wait kind of day. Waiting for the drs to come and see Ava (since we didn't see any last night) and find out what kinds of tests they are going to run on her.

We woke up this morning, Ava's oxygen levels were low 88-90% so she was put on 1/2 liter of oxygen. This kept her levels greater than 90%, most of the time 98-100%. She wasn't crazy about the oxygen in her nose, but she didn't have a choice.


Ava's IV was painful for her when it flushed, but it flushed good and her leg didn't puff up. The NICU nurse that was taking care of her, walked through all the steps a good nurse should while looking and feeling all over her leg saying there is no redness, swelling, only discomfort. I was in LOVE with her!!

We met with the pediatrician, and I told her Ava's story since birth with her colds, eye infection, pyloric stenosis and surgery, and now the pneumonia. To top off her pneumonia, Ava has an bright red and painful diaper rash, so we are going to treat it with antifungal and a stronger barrier cream. The dr also mentioned hearing a heart murmur, so she is going to have an echocardiogram. She will also have a CT scan because it wasn't clear if she had a thymus on any of her chest xrays.

Ava managed to get her oxygen out of her nose and flipped around. She reminded me of a horned snake.

Now that all the tests have been done, we are now waiting for the results.

Another follow-up phone call

This morning I was beginning to make m&m cookies to take out camping this weekend, when I got a phone call from the Ava's pediatrician. She told me she got the official radiologist report from Ava's chest xray from Monday and it confirmed she has right sided middle and lower lobe pneumonia as well as extensive pneumonitis. The dr wanted us to come in for an IM antibiotic injection, so we made the appointment and went in. When we got there Ava was working harder to breathe and having suprasternal and subcostal retractions (not good). Based on Ava's breathing and her drop in weight down to 7 lbs 14 oz., the dr wanted us to go to Gritman for IV antibiotics. As I was getting everything ready to go to Gritman, the dr called us after talking to a pulmonologist/immunologist and the spokane dr wanted us to come to Sacred Heart. I finished gathering up our stuff, and Ava and I drove to Sacred Heart Children's hospital. We got to the hospital around 4:30pm.





We were told to go through the ER so they could start her IV, draw labs, and get a chest xray. We were in the ER for about 3 hours before coming up to the pediatric floor room 327, just 2 doors down from our last room.

Around 9:45pm my parents got to the room. About the same time, I was noticing Ava's arm getting puffy at her IV site, so I told the nurse in plenty of time since she had antibiotics due at midnight.


She tried to flush it, but was unable, then she brought in another nurse to try and flush it. The nurse undid the tape and repositioned the IV catheter then started to flush it, and her arm started to puff up. The nurse kept saying, "it flushes easily" and kept pushing more fluids about 5ml. It wasn't until I said her arm is puffing up before she even noticed and she was still pushing fluids. I was SO MAD!!! A couple nurses looked at her veins, and eventually they sent a PICU nurse to start her IV. I was so thankful, because I was still fuming inside!! The PICU nurse was awesome, she started a new IV in her foot, and also utilized my dad to hold her transluminator while she started it. He was pretty proud he got to help with her IV.

Once her IV was started my parents went to the hotel room and we went to bed.

Another follow-up call

I talked to Ava's dr today, and the lump is a hernia, not just part of the procedure. The unfortunate part about this is she will need another surgery to fix the hernia. Since the hernia is not causing her any pain or discomfort at this time, we will wait to schedule surgery when she has her follow-up on June 8th with the surgeon.

Ava's check-up

Ava had a dr appt today to check her weight and find out more about this nasty cough she has had, that has gotten worse since surgery, on the 16th. She weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. which is up one ounce since surgery. So Yay! She is going in the right direction. However, she has developed crackles in her lungs, so we went to Gritman for a chest xray. Come to find out she has pneumonia (most likely aspriation) in her middle and lower right lung. Ava was started on antibiotics and she really loves sucking the medicine out of the syringe.

On another note she has developed a lump under her right side incision. I am pretty sure it was there when we left the hospital, but the dr is going to talk to the surgeon to find out if that is part of the laproscopic technique or a hernia. More on that after I talk to the dr.

March of Dimes

For the last 3 years, we have done the March of Dimes walk in Lewistion, Idaho. It raises money and awareness for the March of Dimes Foundation for research and care of premature babies. This year was no exception, we were headed to Lewiston and what should happen...Noah starts throwing up in the back seat. So much for the walk. Although Noah was disappointed (he cried when we said we needed to go home), we took our sick baby home and thankfully, he never threw up again, he just has a fever and a runny nose. Oh well, there is always next year.

Got Milk?

We do...And a lot of it.

This was the stash before Ava got sick.

And here it is now after 6 days of mostly pumping...About 1 Gallon.

When I go back to work, Ava definitely won't go hungry.

Hospital Day 6 and going home

Dr. Throne (the pediatric surgeon) said that Ava could go home today as long as the hospitalist cleared her and we were comfortable taking her home. And yes we were!! Most of today was a waiting game. Waiting for the swabs to come back and the hosptialist to come and see Ava and clear her. The swabs came back negative for the viruses it was checking for. We saw the pediatric hospitalist and he told us the bug that she has is most likely the same her brother has and there isn't really any other reason to keep her. I was thankful for that news and called Andy immediately since it was about 5:30pm, so he could head up to Spokane. Just before 7pm the nurse came in, took out Ava's IV and took off her oxygen saturation monitor and gave her some tylenol for the ride home. At 7:30pm, we checked out of the pediatric unit with Ava and a lot of milk. Ava was very unimpressed with her carseat, as usual. I am sure she was more uncomfortable than normal however.

Andy didn't eat dinner, so we stopped at the A&W for a few snacks and continued our way. Shortly after stopping Ava woke up and started to cry. At the Plaza turnoff we pulled over, fed Ava and burped her, hoping it would make for a better drive home. It didn't and she still cried. So we gave up after being stopped for 1/2 an hour and just listened to her cry. We got home around 9:30pm and went to bed. We were exhausted!!

Hospital Day 5

Today has been the first good day in about a week. Ava is breastfeeding again. We started out today feeding for 2 minutes on each side. At 2:45 this morning she ate for just 2 minutes on one side, then at 7:15 ate on both sides. She had a small amount of spit up, but nothing compared to the last few days. At 12:15p, she ate for 2 minutes on each side, without problems. Then at 3:15p, she ate for 5 minutes on each side. She did GREAT! No vomiting, no spit-up, NOTHING! And the best part is she LOVED it! She was so happy when she was done eating. She just sat with me and we looked at each other.

This picture was from first thing this morning. Bright eyed and beautiful!!

Here is Ava with all her attachments, 2 IVs, electrodes, and oxygen monitor, in her little nest. I was trying to wake her up for a feeding but she never woke up enough to eat, and just cried whenever she was moved. So her and I just snuggled and she got some Tylenol, and then she began to feel better.

Since Ava hasn't eaten a whole lot today, we aren't going to go home tonight. Which I am perfectly fine with, especially since we live 2 hours away. They did a nasal swab to r/o a variety of viruses. She has a stuffy nose and cough which has gotten worse. She has been having breathing treatments today to help her breathe easier, and she has become more congested. She still has 100% oxygenation in her blood so its nothing to be worried about. Most likely just another cold to add on to her troubles. The plan is to leave sometime tomorrow afternoon as long as we have an uneventful night.

Hospital Day 4

We finally have answers!!! First thing this morning Ava had her ultrasound, it showed she has pyloric stenosis, which is a thickening of the muscle of the lower end of the stomach, wand the thick muscle prevents food from entering the intestines. So that is why she has been vomiting, because nothing is able to get out of her belly. The only way to fix the problem is surgery, so she will have a pyloromyotomy. This surgery will be done at Sacred Heart by a pediatric surgeon. So we will be heading to Spokane. Andy has pulled some strings so the Moscow Ambulance is going to transport us up. My friend and fellow nurse, Rebecca is also a Paramedic, so she is going to take us up with Phil and Bill (who are both paramedic students).

Ava in her carseat riding in the ambulance for the first time, hopefully the last as a patient.

We arrived at Sacred Heart Children Center around 2pm. Here is Ava in her tiny bed, after the LONG ambulance ride.



Ava did well in surgery, the only complication was she took a little longer to wake up from anesthesia than normal. While she was still sleeping in the recovery room, they started a new IV, so she wouldn't feel it. Here is Ava in the recovery room, our first sight of our sweet little girl. She has 2 tiny scars on either side of her belly and one in her belly button.



Around 8pm, we went back up to Ava's room on the peds floor. They gave her tylenol in the recovery room, but she still didn't seem to be very comfortable. We swaddled her up in warm blankets and she had her binkie, but she was still very fussy and she couldn't eat until 1am. The doctor specifically said she couldn't have narcotics, as in little ones it can decrease their drive to breath and keep them too sleepy, so they won't eat. So around 10:30p we got her some sugar water to dip her binkie in and that solved the problem, she slept for about 4 hours.

It has been a very stressful and busy day, but we have answers and the problem has been fixed and she is on the road to recovery.

1 Month Old

For Noah's 1st Year scrapbook, I took pictures on each of his monthly birthdays and made foot prints. These are Ava's pictures. I haven't gotten her foot prints done yet, since she has had an IV in her foot. But as soon as we get home from the hospital, the foot prints will be done.