Food

Emery is feeling so much better! He did great with the water all day yesterday and slept great last night. At shift change this morning the nurses noticed that his foot was swollen- in fact, you can see that his whole leg was swollen in that first photo. They took out the IV and called to see if we could leave it out. Nope. The docs want it back in.... arg. He is getting harder and harder to poke. They have ordered blood work every day he's been here. Two of those days they had to send two different people for a total of three or four pokes for each blood draw! They only allow each person to poke twice. One of the nurses said his poor veins are like rubber bands from scar tissue so it is just hard to get the needle in. The woman who came in to start his new IV chose his right arm and had to go in twice. I try to encourage emery to be brave and tell him Daddy is going to be sooo proud when he sees his new bandaid. Truth is, sometimes I think I need a pep talk too, even if I am able to control my emotions better in these situations. While they are digging around in his arm it is such a strange feeling restraining the urge to do anything possible to protect my baby. I guess I know that it is necessary for his ultimate good health.
Anyway, on rounds today the ok'd 2 oz of milk every 3 hours. We started that at 8:00 as soon as they put the order in. He did well with that all day and his stool volume/consistency is normalizing slowly. They said we should continue the IV nutrition and fluids until 9 pm and then start his oral electrolytes again at 11 pm when we would usually give him his last dose at home. The nurses didn't seem too concerned with all of the swelling in his foot and leg since it was caught soon enough. They told me that sometimes the IV moves and the fluid will go into the tissue instead of the vein, causing swelling. David took a look at it and said it looked ok. It was back to normal size by evening.

I hope you can see the video I posted of Emery walking down the hall with his walker in between IVs. He can't quite do it on his own yet but was so proud of himself when he took off on his own with this genius toy. Whenever there is something or someone in his way he looks back at me and cries because he can't say how he feels. So we taught him to say, "beep-beep!" so now when he comes up to a door he wants opened he'll say, "beep-beeeeep!" it's been a little more challenging following him around with the IV pole, when they started that back up, but he has been practicing all day!

He is showing off his new hat in the last photo. Some of the Michigan athletes came in and signed a hat and talked to the kids.

It's been a good, busy day for Emery.