IV Free

Claire is now IV free! It was pretty much just hanging on by the tape in her hair so I had them take it out. She is doing pretty well, but we've had to keep bumping her O2 up over the past couple of days to keep her levels around 90. She still isn't on much, but every time we move it up she's a little further away from going home. I'm still hoping for Sunday, but it may be Monday. Sorry for the poor picture quality, but I have to use my phone.



Tomorrow I'll get out of the hospital for a while. Jake heads back to CA on Monday for his infantry training, so I'm meeting them at the zoo to hang out with them before he leaves again. We had this planned before Claire got sick and I'm really bummed that we won't be able to take her like we wanted to.

That's one of the hardest things for me with her being sick...we were soooo careful to keep her away from sick people, were hand washing fanatics, and hardly took her anywhere. And yet here we are. I want to be able to take her places and do things with her, and I feel like we don't get to do that. I know this is a bad time of year, and she won't be quite as fragile after she heals from her surgery, but I feel like she's already missing out.

Darren is feeling better, but he still has a terrible cough. He came in for quite a while today and hung out with us though. He'll come back in tomorrow and stay with Claire while I go to the zoo.
I may have the day care situation worked out. I hate to be too happy about it for fear I'll jinx it, but if it works, it will be close to perfect!

I met the cutest little boy today. He was cruising around the floor in a red wagon. Every time his mom would ask him if he'd had enough he'd sign 'more' and off they'd go again for another lap. He had his heart surgery (for a slightly different defect than Claire's) a couple of months ago, and is back because he got RSV then a secondary infection. I talked with his mom a bit about his signing and his surgery. When I said goodbye to them, she asked if Claire had DS. I said yes and she got a huge smile on her face and said I was so lucky.

I really needed that today. The uncertainty of DS still scares the crap out of me. I needed to meet this mom who is thrilled that her boy is starting to talk at 3. I need to remember that Claire will do all the things that other kids will do, just on her own timeline, and to enjoy the slower pace. It is truly a blessing that I met this beautiful little boy and I hope I get to spend some more time with him. His wonderful smile was exactly what I needed.