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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Little Bites, Small Drinks

The last few days have been pretty quiet and we are still home! The kids, including Esther, have colds. When we saw the doctor on Monday he said because her counts were so high from the stem cell growth factor, he said this is the round to get a cold. It's still scary because a chest cold can turn into pneumonia. We need to be extra sensitive to fevers and her breathing. She seemed to be better today. Please pray she would get well quickly.

Monday she did great! She didn't cry or fuss a bit about her shot. The hours leading up to the shot were harder and she was really scared and fussing, but when it came to it, she was so brave! The drive home was probably the worst nausea she's had and an accident on I-25 added an hour and a half to our drive.

The nausea is still strong for Esther. The last couple of days she's tried to eat little bites and take small drinks. She is hungry and wants to eat, but not much has stayed down. It's sad to see her losing weight. From her discharge on Saturday to her check up on Monday she'd lost almost 2 pounds. Please pray for her to be able to eat and gain back some of the weight she's lost. The doctor gave her a prescription for an appetite stimulant to try. We'll see, she does want to eat, it's just a matter of keeping it in her tummy long enough to do any good. The next step is a med in the steroid family, but I really, really want to avoid steroids.

Her gag reflex is very sensitive, so I wonder if she's really nauseas or if she is vomiting because of a funny bite. Pray for wisdom as we feed her and creativity for high calorie foods that are easily digested. Suggestions are welcome!

All in all, we're doing alright. We're so thankful Aunt Margarita was able to be here again last week. The kids had a great time with her. They had Taco Tuesday, went to a berry picking excursion with some friends from the twins club, watched sunsets, toured the CSU flower gardens, played at the Fossil Creek Splash park, practiced speaking Spanish, and we enjoyed A.MAZ.ING. fresh salsa she made from our garden fresh ingredients. If you need some veggies, stop by! We've got more than we'll be able to eat or manage. Kale, cucumbers, peppers, fairy tale eggplant, tomatillos, and tomatoes are in abundance. I'm serious...come by!

Here's some pictures from their week .

With our friends Miss M and Miss S at the berry picking farm.

 

Rourke is exersicing every amount of self control in his body to not eat his berries. They also made beeswax candles, watched a movie about bees, and went on a hayride. They also brought Esther an adorable hat home from the farm.

 

 

Auntie Margarita makes everyone smile! I love this picture. Uncle Kyle's sweeheart Emily, and I have a similar picture with ribs.

 


At the CSU flower gardents. My guess is that the kids are saying "Te Amo!" That was the catch phrase of the week!

 

Zinnia with the zinnias. I think the blonde flower with the blue flip flops is the cutest of the bunch.
 
Zinnia and Aunt Margarita watched the sunset or sat on the front step each night. Zinnia would ask each night to "sit outside." Very sweet.
 
Rourke and Lydia worked hard to de-germ the "blue car" before Esther came home.
 

 


Waiting to take Esther home Saturday afternoon. When Anthony and Rourke arrived, Rourke went straight to Esther's bed, squatted down to her level saying, "Hi Esther! I missed you!" He is such a sweet brother and pours love over his sister. After Anthony laid down, he did not hesistate to kick off his shoes and crawl right up next to his littlest sister. Often when people comment about Rourke being the only boy I am quick to say that he will be such a good husband someday. If he dodes on his bride the way he dodes on his sister, she will be a blessed woman indeed.

6 comments:

  1. Love you guys and I'm praying. I know when we had a baby that we needed to get his weight up, we added avocado to his rice cereal...and your guac is pretty delicious...hope it helps.

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  2. Have you tried protein fruit smoothies? We have to do that with Ridge because he just won't put on weight in general.

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  3. Sam - I have been making a "smoothie" that turns out like pudding really. The girls have been eating it out of a bowl with a spoon and loving it! 1/2-1 Avocado, 1 Banana, 1/2 cup any kind of milk, and honey to taste is the base and then you can add in all sorts of other goodies - wheat germ/oat bran/flax meal, nuts or nut butter, molasses, greens, coconut, other fruits, protein powder - you get the idea and Esther can pick! Blend for about a minute and it's smooth and creamy and mostly tastes like bananas. Love you! Jen

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  4. What about mashed potatoes with butter or baby food from the jar (like banana or peaches). Should help avoid the gag reflex also!

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  5. Jumping on the smoothie bandwagon here too:

    1/4 cup roasted UNsalted peanuts
    1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
    1/2 cup milk
    1/2 cup yogurt
    good-sized handful of spinach
    1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (covers the green color as well as adds chocolate flavor)
    A couple of teaspoons of your preferred sweetener, customized to taste.
    1 frozen banana, thin-sliced


    This makes a big smoothie (about 16 oz, I think), so you'll want to halve it or share it around. It comes out milkshake consistency, but can be thinned with more milk. You get loads of protein and calories from the peanuts, milk, and yogurt, without having to buy specialty ingredients like protein powder, and it's not super sugary.

    Love,
    Charity

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  6. Hoping Esther can eat and keep it down soon. Your boy reminds me of our oldest boy. Super sweet to his sisters <3 Ryan was the lonely male till he was 9. He does great with is sisters and I always say he'll make some lucky girl and excellent husband!

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