Ben brought Bailee and Lincoln up to the hopsital the other day to visit with London. The kids had just recieved their report cards and let me tell you.... I have 2 very smart kiddos. I am one very proud mamma. We try to celebrate their report cards (weather good or bad), and so I decided that while I had Ben at the hospital that he could sit and cuddle with London (tough job I know... it took a lot of convincing.....) I would take Bailee and Lincoln out to celebrate their report cards. Just the day before a friend of mine informed me that their was a Cobbs bakery just around the corner from the hospital (for you that live in Calgary, if you have never heard of Cobbs bakery before, may I say, that you are really missing out. I discovered it while I had Lincoln in a Co-op preschool with some friends and we went there for one of our field trip.... they allowed the kids to go into the back and make their own goodies). Needless to say their products are so yummy. With out treats in hand we headed to Chapters and they each were able to pick out a couple of books of their choice (I'm sure some of you will think that this kind of gift is really lame... but my kids LOVE to read). I also decided that since we were so close that we would go up and see the new temple that is being built in Calgary. The kids were so excited to see Moroni on top. It was a great day. I loved the time I was able to spend with them.

So update on London. They still have her on TPN. The doctor says that she will probably be on it until the end of the week. She is starting to perk up a little bit in the morning, which is really nice to see. They still have us on isolation, because of her positive Rtoavirus... which really sucks. And she hasn't pooped because she doesn't have anything in her tummy, which means they can't re-test it to see if she is over it... so in isolation we stay.
We had a bit of a scare today with her PICC line..again. One of her ports had come undone and I did not realize it. I had walked over the othe other side of her room to grab something and when I looked back we had a trail of blood splatter all over the floor, their was blood driping on me and her. It looked like a scene out of a horror story. I'm glad to say that it was an easy fix, but no the less scary.
So it sounds like we have a bit of a set back today. They have been testing her blood levels every moring, and this morning her Cholestrol levels were extremely high. They stopped her lipids (which is just straight fat) and said that they will test her levels again tomorrow and see if maybe we can start the lipids again. The setback is that they will need to start them at the rate they started them on Saturday.
We all know that London has had a difficult time with weight gain.. that is not a secret. But since she has been in hospital, she has lost a whole pound. Today she weighs 11 lbs 12 oz. Without her lipids and without any food, she will continue to loose weight..... Which is a battle that we will continue to fight for a long time I guess.
I got the okay from the doctor to try some pedialyte with her today. I was super excited to give something to her. She took it great... and then puked it back up. Looks like it is going to take us a while to work her up to any sustainable amount of food.

Poor little London

So I would like to say that London's puking ended last week and that she had a fabulous birthday...but that would be stretching the truth...okay, that would be a flat out lie. Truth is she is still sick. Her and I got to celebrate her 1st birthday in the ER at the Alberta Children's Hospital. And we have been here ever since. London could not keep anything down, and what she was able to keep down went right through her and out the other end. I felt so bad for her. I have been watching her get weaker and sicker by the minute. My little, smily, happy and bright eyed baby has turned into a weak, sleepy, lethargic sick little girl. The doctors said that she has Rotavirus, which is a gastrointestinal virus, but because her little body is so comprimised already it is hitting her very hard. So hard infact that they think that her intestines are extremely damaged.

After 2 plus days of trying to get food into her and keep it in her, the doctors decided to put a PICC line in. It is like a really long IV that threads from your arm all the way to your heart. They have stopped trying to feed her all together to try and let her intestines rest, and have started her on TPN, which is like a liquid form of food that they administer through her PICC line. They started that yesterday at about 6, after a bit of a scare with her newly placed PICC line. I had just settled her and she was just drifting off to sleep and I thought that I would run downstairs quickly and grab a bite to eat. That was when I noticed the blood pooling and driping from her PICC line dressing. I paniced a bit. I know that the site can bleed slightly at first, but this was a bit exessive. I called her nurse and immediately we had 6 other nurses in the room, one yelling to get the doctor, another yelling for gauze, another for pressure on the site..... needless to say it was a bit chaotic. After some pressure and repositioning they managed to get the bleeding under control and rebanaged her little arm with an additional pressure dressing (just incase). Once the dust had settled a bit and we were confident that her line was still okay to use, they started the TPN.

I was really hoping that she might perk up a bit after a couple hours on the TPN. No such luck though. My baby who normally doesnt take a nap until 3pm (after being up all day) has now fallen asleep twice and it is only 10 am.

I feel totally helpless as her mother, knowing that there is absolutely nothing physically that I can do to make her better. It is just a matter of time. I know though that she will get better. We have so many good friends and family that are praying for her and have been for quite some time. I am so grateful for you all. I have felt your strength. I appreciate your help with my other children. I am grateful for the meals, the visits and the phone calls and texts asking, and making sure that we are doing okay. I am so beyond grateful for Ben and for him doing a great job holding down the fort with our four other children, so that I can be here with London. Mom, you are amazing. You have helped us out so much. I am so blessed. Thank you everyone.

Birthday's galore

March is a month filled with birthdays. We started the month with my mom's birthday. The kids worked very hard on her birthday present for her. They made her, her very own snow man. He has now since melted but they were so proud and excited to show her what they had done.

Our little peanut, London doesn't turn 1 until Tuesday, but we thought that today would be a great day to celebrate it (the weeks days get really busy with gymnastics, activity days, piano ect). Unfortunately London wasn't so into the whole celebration mood, and spent the party throwing up and sleeping. Poor London. But before it all got the best of her, we were able to snap a couple of pics of her in her birthday princess attire.

Her she is on daddy's lap. We knew she wasn't feeling good when she cuddled right into daddy ( she's a bit of a mama's girl... she loves her daddy too though).

I made mini cupcakes for our minitaure sized London. They were yummy. Don't worry we saved some for London. She will get her's when she is feeling better.

One of the rare smiles that we were able to get out of her today. Grandma bought her a London sized stool. She loves it. She can almost sit on it and have her feel touch the gorund :) And her stroller from mom and dad.

Happy birthday London. Mommy and daddy love you so much.

Oh the things that he says

These are plates that Ben brought back from his mission in Puebla Mexico. They have been sitting in our prount closet for several years now. I finally decided to clean out the disaster that has formed in the closet over the last couple of years and pulled these out. Jackson discovered them and immediately clung to them. I couldn;t quite figure out what was so interesting about them, but he was very protective of them. He would not let anyone come close to them and barely let the other kids look at them. That night as I was getting dinner easy, Jackson climbed up to the island where I was working, plates in hand. As I watched him, he bowed his head and folded his arms and then porceded to give the most sincere prayer any 4 year old could give...."We are so thankfun our dear Heavenly Father for these golden plates of Nephi. Please watch over them and protect them so that the bad guys won;t take them form us and we can have them forever. Amen". I bet you can imagine what I did....yep I smiled, and very big proud smile. Yes they were golden plates and I am so proud of him for connecting the two seemingly unrelated sets of golden plates together.

I took the kids to the zoo today. It was so much fun. They have a new penguin exhbit. It was AMAZING. I could have sat there all day and watched them. They are the neatest animals. I think that the kids could have sat there all day too. But sadly we were only allowed 15 minutes in the exhibit to accomadate for everyone else who loved the penguins too.

Trying to keep up

So I have been really bad at blogging. I wish I could say that I'm going to do better and never get behind again..... but I would be lying. It is sad to think about everything that has happened since my last post in November that I have not documented. I have been really trying to focus on a few things first before I focused on my blog again. One was reading my sciptures everyday....which I have been successful at so far and two is writing in my journal, not my blog, but my private journal. I found this amazing website called "Oh Life" that will eamil you everyday a reminder email to write in your journal. The concept is so amazingly simple too, you get an email in your in box , you respond to it with your entry and they store it in an online journal for you.....for free!!!!!! I love it. So since I think that I have done a pretty good job of my two goals, I thought that now would be a good time to try this blogging thing again. So here we go..........

SO I'm a little frazzled to say the least from yesterday. Dr W wanted to put London back in hospital again. I am just so frustrated with this all. Why is it that his solution for everything is to put her back in hospital. He said to me yesterday, "I'm a little concerned that you don;t see this issue like I do". Really!!!!!!!!! I'm the mother. She's my daughter. She is absolutely beautiful and doing EVERYTHING that the others did. She is his patient and so he sees her from a medical view. Of course I'm not going to see it like he does. I don't think that he likes me much anyways. He pretty much asked if I wanted a new doctor. I don't want a new doctor. I think that he is a great doctor, I want my families life back. I don't want to feel like fingers are being pointed at me as the route cause of all of this. I am NOT a neglectful parent. I have 4 other beautiful healthy children. I am a very capable mother who loves her children very much. I want London to grow up to be healthy and strong. I want her to find an amazing young man and get married in the temple of her choice. I want us to take all of the kids to Disneyland someday and to laugh and be like every other family on this planet. I DO"T want to have her in hospital again and have the others worry about her. I don't want to have to go up to the Children Hospital every week for weight checks. I don't want life to revolve around her weight. I want it to revolve around how amazing and special she is, around her smile that can light up a room and her laid back, content, loving giant spirit that fills her tiny little body.

I am hoping and praying that this week brings good news. I am up at the hospital again next Tuesday. I will be praying hard this week.

I despise Halloween. I loath it actually. I think that it is by far the most worthless holiday. BUT the kids sure do love it, and it just happens to be Bens favorite holiday. So I am a little out numbered when it comes to my negativity about the whole day. Our ward had their yearly halloween party, this year it was a dance. It was lots of fun. The kids had a blast. Ben won for the scariest costume!!!!!
Is it me or is there something seriously wrong with this picture?

I have always been facinated with family history, but lately I have picked up working on it again. I went ot the family history centre the other night and worked with a lady in my ward (Darla Smigel) on trying to find my ancestors names. Together we found 15 names! I came home and was so excited. I found another 3 on my own at home the next day!!!!!!!!