Gretta checking out the pretty purple flowers. I think we got a similar shot with Emma Kate when she was just a baby, although Emma Kate, being a month older at this time of year, did sit up a little longer before toppling over!
Gretta was especially smiley and happy this afternoon and was enjoying some rear-end-airing-out time (aka nakey time).
This was one of the first shots, I think she was saying to herself, " what is that crazy lady doing taking pictures of me like this?" She is such a cutie, with all her little rolls and dimples!
Gretta has been enjoying a lot of time in the tie-on wrap when Emma Kate and I go outside, and she almost always gets at least one nap a day like this. Today was especially chilly, and she immediately snuggled down and fell asleep. She is so content like this, and she keeps me so warm I usually don/t need a coat!
Here's the little ewok just moments after waking up...
Gretta has been laughing a few times in the last couple of weeks, and we finally got a bit on camera! Emma Kate was shaking the bottle of ibuprofen and Gretta just thought it was hilarious! There was a lot of laughing before I could get the camera out, but we still got some! Also, note that Greg is no longer having to wear his neck brace around the clock! He gets to do 1 hour off, 1 hour on, etc. which is a nice break!!
In other news, we have been forced to take the "sink or swim" approach to Emma Kate and her nutrition/fluid intake... Tuesday morning we had the nurse out to do a cap and dressing change as well as pull blood for monitoring. I won't relive every moment of it again here, as I have sworn to get over it, but suffice it to say the catheter ended up getting blocked by a clot after sitting with blood in it for a ridiculously long time while there was fiddle-farting going on... After the nurse attempting to fix things (that obviously weren't going to fix it...) we just decided to pull it. We had weaned Emma Kate down to 1/2 the volume of fluid that she had been getting, and she has done well with it. She is tolerating the honey-thickened liquids well and we figure that she CAN drink if she needs to, so there's no clear indication that she should have any trouble staying hydrated. As her GI doc put it, maybe having to pull the PICC line was "providential" and having it in was our crutch, slowing us down and holding her back from being as normal as possible. She has done great since then, plenty of wet diapers through the day, and how wonderful it is to not have that thing in her arm!! We celebrate several times a day the fact that she has no more "toooobs and wires," no more tape or bandaids, no more wrapper wrapper (at bathtime), no more owies, and no more crying!!! Life has been great without it. We won't look back for a minute!!! It's so nice not to have to worry about hooking everything up and getting her on the pump every evening after having to do it for something like 2 months... what a breath of fresh air! Since stopping the TPN/lipids, she has lost some weight, which we all expected, but she's doing great with her eating- I have no doubt that she will settle in at some point and go back to gaining at her normal rate. I think they just had her so pumped up on calories and fat that she's getting back to her natural state still. She is eating and drinking about the same amounts as she was before surgery, which is great. Her appetite is wonderful again, and she even ate 4oz in one sitting, which was miraculous! (That was exciting before the surgery too!) We feel confident she will do great. She has been active and playful, and loves having some independence!
Greg has been doing good as well, he had some evaluations in Roanoke on Thursday and is finally able to start weaning off of the neck brace. He's doing 1 hour on, 1 hour off, etc. until he feels comfortable doing longer times. He's working on getting lined up for some PT and will hopefully get back on light duty soon. We were a little disturbed to hear that earlier this week there was another accident just a couple hundred feet from where he was hit that involved 2 fatalities as well as other significant injuries, and one of the cars with a death was from Pilot too. The nature of the accident sounds the same, with someone not noticing that the car in front of them was stopping, and they swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting the stopped car. They hit someone head on, and then somehow a third car was involved as well. There was one death at the scene, and one death in transit in the helicopter I think. It was all just too close to home, too similar to Greg's situation, and just too devastating. I still just can't believe that Greg is here and walking around...
Gretta has been so active and chatty lately... well, when I say chatty, I mean she sings a lot. To some it might sound like she's fussing, but she's happy when she does it! It's funny- it's like she's just happy about something and decides to yell about it! She has a good set of lungs on her for sure!!! She's also got the laughing bug started, and will laugh sometimes when she is tickled, or when Daddy blows raspberries on her tummy, or apparently when Emma Kate is being silly! She is drooling like crazy (making up for the fact that Emma Kate was a *dry* baby), and chewing on her hands all the time, so we got her some chew toys (no, not dog toys) and she's working on figuring them out. So far we can't see any teeth waiting to break through, but they might not be too far off! She's starting to sit up on her own too, just needing someone sitting by her to reset her if she goes too far past the tipping point, but she is so strong on her belly too- I'm sure crawling isn't too far off in the future!
The weather (except today and yesterday) has been wonderful and spring-like, and we have been outside as much as reasonably possible! It has been so rejuvenating to get outside and see all the green grass growing and the trees coming out with their buds. It looks like we should have a good season for the blueberries and fruit trees if we can avoid a late frost!!!
And yes, I have finally removed the broken lens barrier from the camera- it was leaving a black corner on all my pictures!!! Haven't tracked down replacement parts yet, so for now we just have a naked lens, but the camera still works!!!
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