Long post about Chloe

This post is long overdue but we've been a little preoccupied with other things, but I'll get to that later.

I took Chloe to Primary Children's Medical Center on Thursday to be admitted so they could try to figure out why she wasn't gaining weight. Since her pediatrician called the night before all we had to do is say we were there and I walked up to her room (which coincidentally was one room over from where she was in March when she had RSV) and away they went with all the tests and measurements. Easiest hospital admission I've ever done! As you can see below we had a fun time trying to keep Chloe tangle-free with her many cords. She rolled this way and that and we finally had to pad the sides of the crib because she kept bonking her head on the rails.

Chloe had lots of toys to play with while we were there. And the doctors, nurses, and med students loved her so she had lots of admirers. We did a lot of tests, none too invasive and the craziest one we even documented with pictures.

Chloe had a chloride sweat test to test for cystic fibrosis which I knew she didn't have (she doesn't have any symptoms) but the doctors wanted to check to make sure so we humored them. For this test, they hooked her up to a machine to stimulate her sweat glands and then collected her sweat to test the chloride levels in it. Kinda funny really. The nurse running the test told us they've been doing this particular test this way for a long time (like decades).

This is her hooked up to the machine stimulating her glands.

Another view of the same:

The machine she was hooked up too. Looks scary. Sean was joking that we were going to shock her.

This is after the gland stimulation. They wrapped a little square piece of gauze around her arm in plastic...

...and then wrapped it with a second piece of plastic...

...and then it got wrapped with some cute bumblebee coban and then hot packed. Then she got wrapped in about 5 blankets and the thermostat got turned up to 80 and she had to stay like that for 30 minutes. This was all on a 95 degree day. I told them they should have just taken her outside!

Anyway, it turns out that all we found out is that Chloe isn't getting enough calories during the day (which we already knew...) so they decided to put a feeding tube in at night and she'll be getting a third of her daily calories in her sleep.

I still think she's super cute, even with a tube coming out of her nose.

Playing with some fun toys. She had a great time at the hospital this time. Lots of toys and attention, she was set!

I caught her sleeping on all these cords. I have no idea how she found this comfy but she did!

I learned how to put the tube in and just as they were discharging us I started feeling nauseated. I tried to hold it together but lucky me, I somehow caught the stomach flu at the hospital. So after throwing up a few times, I packed up my kiddo and hauled us home so I could be sick in the comfort of my own home. That night a home health nurse came and taught me how us the feeding pump at home and she told my doctor that I was amazing (glad I could impress even when I could barely function in between bouts of being sick). So we put the tube in every night before bed and let her eat in her sleep. She did gain about a half a pound while we were in the hospital and her pediatrician was thrilled about that. We have lots of follow up appointments from now until the end of the year but I'm glad that she's making some progress.

Chloe also got fitted for her helmet on Monday and I was set to take lots of pictures of the casting process but the place we went was so high tech they just put the kid's head in a machine and 30 seconds (or less) later they had a 3-D scan of her head. No mess, no fuss. My kind of appointment! They'll have to scan her head a few more times throughout the reshaping process so next time I'll be more prepared and take a picture!

Oh, and Jillian got the stomach bug that I brought home and finally stopped throwing up this afternoon so that's my excuse for not getting this post up sooner. She kept running around and this would cause her to be sick but she wouldn't just lie down and rest, and she kept begging for food. Two-year-olds!

I think I need a vacation.

Hanging at the Hospital

Chloe is at the hospital again. This time we are trying to figure out why she isn't gaining any weight. She's been a good baby and everyone here loves her. I hear multiple times a day how cute she is (not that I ever get sick of hearing that!). I wanted to post some pictures of some of the tests she's had to take but Blogger is not letting me upload more than one so here is the one I got to load and the rest will have to wait for another time!

Some pictures from the last week

Last Sunday after church Jillian wanted me to take her picture. So I took about 20 and this was the only one that she actually looked at me and smiled for:

Then this week she wanted pictures again. I am a mean Mom and said, "Nope." It was hot outside!

Jilly looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm an elephant!" And what do ya know, she actually looked like one!

Chloe is finally getting really good at sitting. She loves to sit and play with her toys!

This video cracks me up. I took another one that was pretty funny but it is really long. She was trying so hard to get the Cheerio before I started filming her and then when I turned the camera on she was very distracted by the camera. Funny kid!

Visitors

We had a lot of fun last week when Sean's Mom, sister, and niece came to visit for the 4th of July. We spent some time at the pool, something we don't do much even though we have access to the apartment's pool all the time.

Alyssa holding Anna, Laurie, Sean and Jillian. Chloe and I sat out and took pictures of the swimmers.

On Saturday we went to the zoo. Jillian was so excited to see the giraffes, even before we really saw any animals. I didn't know she knew that giraffes lived at the zoo. She also kept calling it the "zoom" which I thought was utterly adorable.

Looking at the wild turkeys.

Chloe spent most the day in her stroller, covered up so she wouldn't get sunburned. She was a trooper.

Passing the Primate building.

Jillian was scared of the orangutan but my niece, Anna, loved him.

Miss Anna in her cute sunhat.

Getting a drink.

Looking at the big cats. It was hot out so they were all in their shade taking naps. Not so exciting to look at.

Jillian did not want to sit on this cat to get a picture. And then we put Anna on in front of her and she was not having any of that.

Yay! We finally found the giraffes.

Anna was waving to the giraffes. They were a big hit with everyone!

Chloe and me taking a break from the stroller.

Mama elephant and baby Zuri. Zuri is almost a year old and weighs 400 lbs. Wish she could loan my baby some of that weight...

Chloe chilling in her stroller while everyone else went into the small animal building.

Riding the train with Dad.

We all loved the train.

The girls hanging out at home. They had a lot of fun playing together!

On Monday we went to the Independence Day parade.

Waiting for the parade to start.

Jillian was not a fan of the sirens at the beginning of the parade. She hung onto Grandma really tight.

We had such a good time while everyone was here! Thanks for coming!