A few pictures

A few pictures from yesterday and today:

Yesterday (Friday, September 17, 2010)

Lolly in the early morning, hooked up to her BiPAP breathing machine (she HATED it!!!)

She looked so teeny-tiny with her big bed and big machines:

Intubated:

Her nurse, Andrea, was wonderful, and spent the afternoon bathing her and washing her hair:

So cute:

Playing beauty parlor:

I was so glad to see my sister, Kelly.  The minute I heard that Lolly was being Life Flighted on Monday, Kelly made plans to find a babysitter for the week for her son, Nash, who is Lolly's age.  She drove up from Cedar City (about 6 hours) with her little baby Bridgette, and stayed the entire week with my kids.  I didn't even have to ask.  Kelly knew that besides Lolly, taking care of my other kids was my #1 concern.  Although I had many friends offer to take care of the boys, I knew that continuity in their routine and staying at our house would help them the most.  She WORKED her tail off taking care of everything with the house, soccer practice, homework, laundry (we had PILES of laundry because Lolly had had terrible diarrhea and vomiting all weekend and had only wanted to drink grape juice) and everything else, big and small.  She went to birthday lunch with Trey at the school and made their lives NORMAL for the week.  She was AMAZING.  She has always treated my kids so well, and they were so sad when she left on Friday (when Ben's parents got home).  I love you Bel!

She stopped in SLC for the night before heading home this morning.

Ben's sister, Heather, lives in Salt Lake.  She's been up several times to visit and help with Sammi.  She even took the day off work yesterday to help. 

Heather and Bridgette (Kelly's baby):

Samantha and Bridgette

My mom, sister Kelly, neice Bridgette, Sammi, me, Ben, Elder Neil L. Andersen and little Lolly

Today- Ben came up to the hospital early so my mom and I could sleep in after yesterday's craziness.  I was so excited to get up to see her this afternoon!

It was so nice to see her extubated.  She still needs blow-by oxygen (she keeps trying to drink from the mask):

Ben and Lolly in our room.  We have the BEST room in the hospital- really it's the room with a view- big windows on two walls.

She was excited to see her balloons today (thanks Maren and Char):

Looking at her balloons:

She used to suck her left thumb, but had to change to her right once she was hospitalized because her first IV was on her left hand.  Now, her left hand is free, and although she has an art line on her right hand and a big board to stabilize it, she now prefers her right hand.

A drink!!!  She begs ALL day.  After Trey had his 3rd heart surgery when he was 3, he was very fluid restricted when he was in the PICU.  We were worried that he would lose his sanity- he wanted a drink sooooo bad.  Now Lolly is dying for a drink.  The nurse told us that renal (kidney) kids are thirsty all the time, and she's fluid restricted, so she's going nuts.  We're so excited when it's time to offer a drink again.  She only gets 10 ccs (two teaspoons) every 3 hours- just enough to tease her.  I keep telling myself, "This too shall pass."  It's so hard to watch her suffer.  She does get IV fluids and they just started feeding her formula through her NG tube (in her nose).  They have to monitor her fluids very carefully for two reasons- #1- her airway is still somewhat swollen from when she was intubated and #2- every tiny drop in is measured to balance everything with her dialysis.  Each day should get a little better for her.

Oh how we love our little Lolly.

She's been terribly agitated tonight.  She is exhausted, but she hasn't been able to sleep all afternoon.  She is so thirsty and very uncomfortable.  We're so very proud of our little girl.  She is having to have a lot of patience.  It's amazing to see how much she has submitted to our will for her- all the pokes and prods and people messing with her.  She lets them, and most of the time, she is very nice about it.  She no longer tries to pull everything out.  I am amazed that she's left her NG tube (feeding tube in).  We are so proud of our beautiful little girl.  She has done such a good job enduring through it all.  We feel so blessed to call her ours.