New Beginnings

Yesterday marked a new beginning.  My mom and dad packed up and headed back to Michigan.  We are officially on our own with our family of five.  My parents couldn't have left us with a more solid foundation.  They were so amazing - everything they did - helping us keep up the house, keeping Jason company at the hospital, making meals, entertaining Samantha, soothing Josh so I could get some extra sleep, what seems like hundreds of loads of laundry, grocery shopping, errand running.  Really, we couldn't ask for anything more.  It was so sad to see them go.  They have been here through some pivotal points of this experience.  I wish they could be here all the time.  Actually, I wish we could be around all of our family all of the time.  It is increasingly difficult to be so far away from family (mine and Jason's).  Regardless of Alli's situation, it would be nice to be able to attend regular family get togethers, in addition to the baptisms, weddings, graduations, and other major life events.  I digress.

Today marks another new beginning.  Alli will be leaving the CICU and heading to inpatient rehab at Scottish Rite.  This is amazing.  She has already had some bedside PT and OT and we are seeing great progress from that.  We are so anxious to see what she will accomplish with focused therapy every day.  Since my last update they have weaned her off of bipap during the day to the high flow nasal canula.  Yesterday they were able to take her down to the regular nasal canula.  She is still on bipap at night to give her lungs some extra support.  This combination seems to be working well for her.  They will continue to wean the settings while she is in therapy.  I am hoping they are able to wean her off of the bipap before she comes home.  She should be moving some time this afternoon.

Josh is doing well.  He had his 1 month appointment on Monday.  He weighed in at 9 lbs. 5 oz. and 22.25 inches long.  The great news is that I no longer have to wake him up at night to eat!  He is sleeping a solid 4-5 hour stretch at night - which is glorious!  He is making good eye contact and starting to track.  I noticed yesterday that he followed me with his eyes a few times.  He is building good head control and bears down weight when his feet touch a surface (I'm pretty sure this is still reflexive, but good nonetheless!)  He is getting some tummy time during the day.  He doesn't seem to mind this, especially if he snuggles in for a short nap.  He has some great smiley moments and is making some sweet cooing sounds periodically.  All in all, he is doing great!

Allergy season has hit Samantha (or a spring time cold - but I think/hope it is allergies).  As soon as the pollen hit over the weekend she started with a runny nose.  I have enjoyed spending more time with her since I have been home with the baby.  She does a LOT of talking these days.  She is interested in knowing everyone's name, their parent's names, their ages, etc.  On the way to school this morning she told me about our house being built out of brick, similar to someone else's house, and different than her nanny Megan's house, which is green.  She likes to talk about almost anything - except what she did at school during the day.  She used to come home and report back about 1 or 2 activities.  Now she tells me she did nothing.  I know this isn't the case, and eventually she warms up and tells me something about her time at school.

Our nanny, Megan, is getting married this weekend, so we will have a new nanny working with Samantha and Josh while she is away.  Nicole is coming to us from our good friends, Tracey and Victor.  We are excited for her to be here and to have some back up for Megan.

Ok - we will have more reports from rehab!  Thanks for hanging in there with us!  We really appreciate all of the kind things people have done to help us out, especially the meals, gifts/hand me downs for Josh, and certainly the prayers.  We couldn't keep this up without you!

This picture is from yesterday - it is the first time she has been dressed in 6 weeks!