Peanut, Nana, and I were pleasantly surprised to see this man hanging around outside the Children’s Specialty Clinic after Peanut’s appointment yesterday.

Nana, Peanut & Santa

Now, on to the details of Peanut’s appointments. She is now 10lbs 3.6oz, and 22 inches long…again they are very happy with her growth. However, she had an incredibly high output Wednesday – 157ml in a 24 hour period. We are going to try one more week of the antibiotoc, Flagyl, begining Monday. Because of this, they are not increasing her feeds. 🙁 But she’s still making progress with her TPN. They are making some more changes to her solution by reducing her dextrose and amino acids by 30%, and added more sodium acetate. If her sodium continues to remain low, the doc said we may start adding table salt to her bottles. At this point Peanut is getting about 85% of her nutrition from her bottle feedings and only 15% from her TPN! The only real concerning result from her visit is that both her ALT & AST levels (which have been consistantly climbing) are now high enough that she needs to restart her liver medication, Ursodiol. She was on this medication for a few weeks in the NICU. They warned us that over time TPN patients can develop liver problems, so this medication will hopefully reduce the enzymes and bring her levels back to normal. She will likely be on Ursodiol until she is off of TPN.

I will be finally returning to work on January 2nd! I have very patient colleagues…I know my abscense has created a lot of extra work for several people who were sharing my responsiblities over the past 6 months. The support they’ve given us has been wonderful. I’m really going to miss being at home with the kids, and being able to keep Peanut within arms reach. 🙂 Since Peanut still requires one-on-one care because of her central line and ostomy, and because we need to reduce her exposure to germs/illnesses as much as possible, she’s is not healthy enough for group daycare just yet. So Grandpa S and Nana O are sharing the responsibilities of caring for her until she can join Lulu in daycare. By the way, today is Grandpa S’s last day of work! Happy Retirement Grandpa!!!! Peanut is one lucky little gal, we’re confident she’ll be spoiled with love and attention by her grandparents!