Silly Little Veins...

I am amazed at the changes that come to a woman when they become a mother. I've always been a quiet, go with the flow, non-confrontational kinda person....and I still am for the most part. But having a little baby who is unable to speak for themselves, you have to become a whole other person above and beyond who you thought you were. You have to step out of your comfort zone all the time. It's my job to make certain that my daughter is taken care of in every way possible, no unnecessary pain brought on her. Today, I felt this in an extreme way. Brielle had to get some more blood work done the other day to check her electrolytes. Well, one of the tubes of blood coagulated too soon, so they needed some more. We got this done today at the hospital lab. Brielle, like her mom, has HORRIBLE veins. Basically, they don't exist...and if you're lucky enough to find one, they like to run and hide. So anyways, I let the lab workers know about Bri's veins, and told them last time they had the nicu nurses work on her and even called an anesthesiologist to get a vein. As she screamed and squirmed, they dug around in her arms 2 times today with no success and then decided to do a heel stick...which I suggested at the beginning.....but I'm no doctor, so what do I know (Sorry, I'm still a little perturbed). So, they do the heel stick, knowing that it will show her potassium higher than normal. They got the blood and everything was fine and dandy. I got a call a little bit ago saying they needed Brielle to come back and get more blood taken because her potassium level was high but everything else was good. Right......we knew her potassium was going to be high with the heel stick....you can't get her veins...all the other results were good...but you still want to try and get a vein again. NO! No you may not. At first, I went along with it thinking, "well, if you say so...". I called Cody in tears because I know how painful it can be to be poked and prodded over and over again to no avail...and she's just a little innocent baby...great, I'm starting to cry again. After I got my composure back, I started thinking. Light bulb flashed on. I'm going to call her doctor's office in Springfield and see what he has to say about all this. Talked to his nurse, told her the whole dealio. So I called the lab back told them what's up and to go ahead and fax the results back to the doctor. Now I'm just praying and hoping the results were good enough and have that be the end of the story.

AND.....exhale.

Finally....a decent snow!

Thankful for friendly neighbors!

Another trip to St. Louis

Brielle had an appointment today in St. Louis with her surgeon. The nurse instructed/observed as Cody took out Bri's g-button and replaced it with a new one. He did a GREAT job. The whole process took approximately....15 seconds....if that. Dr. Bernabe was very pleased with how well Brielle is doing. She is up to 14 pounds 6 ounces.....or like I told my sister, she weighs 14 chunks and 6 chunkies! After that appointment, her doctor wanted to have an x-ray done to make sure the surgery she had done on her tummy (nissen fundoplication, where they wrapped the upper part of her stomach to the lower part of her esophagus) was still in tact as it should be. We'll hear the results in a couple days. As long as the x-ray looks good, they don't need to see us again for another 6 months!

We left for St. Louis yesterday after Cody got home from church and planned on staying until Tuesday. But with this crazy weather they're calling for, we decided to head home early. Cody said he had a bad feeling if we would have stayed in St. Louis. They were calling for a ton of ice with snow on top of that. We probably would have been stuck there until Wednesday or Thursday if we would have stayed. Very thankful for a wise husband!

On our way home we just ran into some rain. The temperature stayed above freezing so we were good to go! We left just in the nick of time. So thankful for a safe trip to and from. We were able to see my dad, mom and older sister Dawn. I'm glad they live close enough to make a special trip to see us when we are in St. Louis.

I'm pretty excited about this winter storm we're supposed to be getting...just hope we don't lose power! I love me a good snow! Haven't seen a good one since I was younger. Dad use to make the BEST snow forts! He'd put the bucket on the bobcat and build the hugest forts...7 plus feet high with tunnels to get inside! Oh, the good ol' days!