Settling in at home

We've been home for a few days now and are still trying to settle into a routine- We're still having to hook Emma Kate up to her PPN (partial parentral nutrition now, since we've reduced the calories from her total requirement...) around 3 or 4pm, which means we have to have someone specifically dedicated to following her around on her leash after that, until she goes to bed. We've got some friends to help out with those hours for a couple of days that Greg works, but what we can't necessarily have help for is the nighttime hours- Emma Kate still requires some soothing in the night, and she's currently on a pretty strong "Mommy" kick. I'm trying to manage keeping Gretta asleep and help Emma get back to sleep when she gets upset. So far the nights have been pretty rough and sleepless for us all (well, maybe Gretta still gets some good sleep...) but last night was actually pretty good for Emma Kate- she woke several times and either moaned, cried, or called out for Mommy but each one lasted only a couple seconds before she was back to sleep on her own again. Of course, every time she does it, we wake up and get ready to crawl in with her, but each time she was quiet again before we climbed in with her. (Sometimes it seems that we disturb her more by crawling in, so if it's not necessary, it's probably best that we just stay out) Around 5am, she got upset and it got worse instead of better, so we had to intervene, and she was pretty restless until she decided she wanted to get up around 6am.

We had a somewhat productive morning in the house, starting to sift through boxes and throw out trash and such, but I feel like we hardly made a dent- this house is still just a total wreck. It was very satisfying to accomplish a little bit though! After lunch, we headed into town- I went ahead and got checked out for this upper respiratory thing I've been dealing with for over a week now- the huge coughs at night are also keeping everyone awake at times, so I figured I needed to make sure an antibiotic wasn't in order. Just ended up with Flonase and some weird type of cough suppressant that I'm not quite comfortable using without some research first. Then we went in to see Emma Kate's doctor- she's had a respiratory thing going on for about the same period of time, and again, I didn't want her to go without treatment if she needed something else. She's had a big reduction in her nasal discharge over the last few days, but her breathing has become raspy again, like she needs to cough really hard to clear some junk. She will cough for us, but it's usually a little one and if it clears the noise, it comes back shortly after. Didn't seem to need any antibiotics, but we're going to continue her ciprodex nebulizer for a few extra days to be sure the granulation tissue isn't coming back and causing problems. It's a little disconcerting to have had her breathing so silently for a couple weeks, and now to be making all this wet noise when she breaths. Hopefully we're at the end of the run for this respiratory funk and she'll start quieting down again soon.

Tomorrow we have a cap/dressing change on Emma Kate's PICC line (fun. fun.) and will go in to see the GI folks in Roanoke in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll get a further reduction in her calories or possibly cut back the hours the PPN is running so we no longer have to chase her around in the evenings. Seriously, it's really hard to keep up with her sometimes, and it definitely puts a cramp in her independence. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Gretta is doing great, chubby as ever, and mostly a jolly little elf. Except when we're in the car that is. I can't believe that both of our girls are so upset by car rides as babies. It makes things very uncomfortable for sure! She's getting so strong, sits well with a little propping up, and is grabbing at toys. She's having fun handling some infant toys and crinkle books, and we even set up the jumparoo for her the other day, and she has a blast in it! Plus, Emma Kate loves to show her all the features and how they work. She even got in it several times the other day and really gave those springs a workout! I can't believe Gretta is already pretty darn snug in her cloth diapers, and seems not so far off from wearing the ones that Emma Kate is about to bust out of as well. These girls have done such a lot of growing over the last 3 1/2 months! We're going through all the clothes at a ridiculous pace too, it's just amazing! And Emma Kate's vocabulary is taking off like a rocket all of a sudden- she's learning new words left and right, and the thing I think is hilarious is that she has always called Sophie (one of the cats) Fhoo fhoo- just recently she started saying it much more similar to Sophie, and now she has decided (because we so often call her Sophia Maria) that she will only call her MARIA! She says it with such enthusiasm it's hilarious.

These girls are just so amazing, how empty our lives would be without them!!! More pictures and possibly video next time I have a few minutes to post!