Day 18: Camp Nom Nom

Day 18 of 30


A surprise came for us today! We got the cheeriest flowers delivered to our room! Thanks, Tony and Becky! It's so nice to know that people so far away still manage to be part of our time here. The sterile hospital room is slowly filling with homey touches.

Another fun day of eating and playing at boot camp for Olivia. She ate even more than before and she's feeling better. She threw up less today than yesterday during feeds, so we know that she's retaining her calories. The nutritionist even cut back another feed! That means she only has tube feeds 2 times a day and one big one at night while she sleeps. This is the whole point of coming here, so the progress is phenomenal for us. We're moving from one item to eat per feeding to three. She seems to love the variety, and come on, who doesn't love a good buffet? I know Sophie does!

She slept well again after we gave her tylenol. I'm not one to medicate my child, but if it really does help them get them through the night and doesn't throw up, it just might be worth it. I'll have to keep this trick in my back pocket.

While we've been here, we've met a lot of families who are also in the feeding program. Most of them have G-tubes, like Olivia, but there are varying degrees of eating aversions. No kid has eating aversion just because. It's always a side effect of something else, and those something elses vary wildly. Some kids, like O, had severe reflux, but many of them have tracheotomies at some point, along with heart abnormalities, severe allergies or lung issues. Breathing treatments are very standard here. But if they are here, they've gotten over a lot of their other, more life-crippling issues, and are ready to work on eating by mouth. Other kids have had surgeries that turned them off of food, such as brain surgeries for tumors and strokes, have Downs syndrome, or have had just freak accidents that paralyzed them or caused gastrointestinal issues.

But there's one kid here that was special from the get-go. She's around the twins' age, but I noticed had no parent or visitor here with her. Nurses and nursing techs take care of her. She has an NG tube and can't walk, so has to sit in a wheelchair. She's as sweet as can be but never seemed to be as developed, mentally, as the twins. Recently, a nice couple started visiting her and I thought they might be related to her. As I got to talking to them, I found that they are her grandparents and she's here because she was shaken as a baby and it caused her so much brain damage that she's more like a 3-5 month-old instead of a 1.5 year old. It's a wonder she lived through it, so they call her a miracle baby. Before the incident, she was walking, laughing and almost potty trained. I am so filled with anger at whoever could do such a thing to such a beautiful baby girl. My heart was already aching for her when I saw she had no parents, but I felt ripped when I heard of what landed her here. Please pray for her, if you are praying for Olivia, too. God would never abandon someone like her, but could only be cradling her in His arms. He blesses the weak, but this is one of the times I had to remind myself He's also God of justice and hates evil. I go to bed with a heavy heart and hug my baby just a bit tighter.

Food Log:
3/7
Session 1: 68g
Session 2: 65g
Session 3: 73g
Session 4: 76g

Liquids Log:
3/7
Session 1: 30g
Session 2: 31g
Session 3: 25g
Session 4: 30g

Calorie Count: 464