It’s been a wonderfully uneventful few weeks since our last Peanut update.

Finally caught a smile on camera!

Peanut is now up to 8lbs. 15oz!!! She’s been going to see the gastroenterologists and surgeons in Iowa City every other week for check-ups. Our two goals for the next couple months are 1) to keep Peanut healthy and 2) to wean her off of TPN so that she can have her central line removed. The second goal will take some time, as it’s a slow process of adding 5 ml to her oral feeding every week or two, and slowly taking the calories out of her TPN…all while making sure she still gains weight.

We’re being diligent about staying at home and only taking her out for doctor appointments. Our homecare nurse is actually able to draw her weekly labs at home and deliver them to the lab for us, so we don’t have to expose her to more germs in the hospital. Since preemies are more susceptible to getting RSV (Respiratory Synctial Virus), Peanut is also getting RSV injections once a month from November through March – her nurse gave her the first injection last night. Lulu had the same injections when she was an infant. Couldn’t be better timing as both Sissy and Potato Boy have colds. 🙁

As for Peanut’s next surgery, we were originally aiming for a mid-winter date, but at this point, her doctors think it’s best to give her more time to grow – specifically give her remaining intestines time to grow, and her “poo” more time to thicken up to a pasty consistency before they will do her next surgery. We’re looking at a late spring, possibly even early summer date – and that’s okay with us, after four surgeries in three months, we’re ready for a break! It’s all about the “poo”…the consistency will determine when the next surgery will be.

Here’s where we get into a lot of talk about “poo”, so if talking about poo makes your stomach queasy, then skip to the next paragraph. 🙂 Right now Peanut’s poo is liquid and very acidic. If they reconnect her now, she will be battling severe wounds on her bottom – diaper rash x100 would be an understatement. As her intestines mature and grow, the walls of the intestine will develop more villi (think rolling hills) that will keep the poo in her system long enough to break down bile acid, and absorb nutrients. The docs tell us that with infants and young children who lose their colon, the small intestine will actually start to take over a little bit of the functions of the absent colon – like pulling out water from the poo – which will obviously help the consistency. It’s amazing what the body can adapt to!

Okay, no more poo talk. On to the fun stuff! During the last week in October we had a fabulous photographer, Thea Rentschler of Milestone Portraits by Thea, out to our house for family photos. It’s kind of become a tradition to have her take our family pictures every fall…Pippa even made it into a photo!

Milestone Portraits by Thea

Click here for a link to her blog where she posted a sneak peek of our session! Can’t wait to see the rest!!!

And Sissy turns 12 on Friday!!! It’s hard to believe, but it seems like just yesterday that she was Peanut’s size! Where does the time go?