Day 9

Today I got to go down to see Tanzi while Gary stayed home with Kyri and Graysen. It was nice to be able to snuggle her! She absolutely LOVES being snuggled! I got there early enough that I was able to join her medical team as they came to do "rounds". That's just when they discuss Tanzi's treatment, how she's doing with it, her progress, any changes that need to be made, etc. We have never been there for rounds before, so it was kind of interesting. They said a lot of medical terms that I didn't understand, but it was nice to be able to ask any questions. Tanzi's doctors were there, along with her nurse practitioner, and her bedside nurse. First, the Dr again apologized about the whole breast milk mix-up confusion. I asked for more details, but she was slightly unclear. She said that I would be able to ask the nurse that will be there on Monday for more details. Then I was asking a few other questions about Tanzi and her progress. There is still quite a bit of stuff being sucked out of her Anderson tube. However, it is starting to get lighter in color. The lighter it is and the less there is the more her intestine is healing. So, that is just part of the waiting game. It will be a while. Then I asked about when Tanzi will be able to start eating from a bottle or breastfeeding. The doctor responded by saying, "Unfortunately, that's going to be the hard part about your stay here. It's not going to be for a while. Quite a while." Another part of the waiting game. And that's when I realized, for the very first time, that this is going to be our life for longer than just 2 or 3 weeks. Right after Tanzi's surgery the surgeon told us that an average recovery would be 2-3 weeks. I'm now realizing that's just how long it will take for the surgery site to heal. Then we have to add in the fact that Tanzi's stomach is extremely small since all the food she is now getting is bypassing her stomach. So, when she's finally able to eat from a bottle or breast feed it will have to be VERY small amounts at a time. And she has to be up to "full feeds" before she can come home. It will be a while...

In the meantime, here she is looking as precious as ever!

Wide awake!

A nice close-up

Kyri keeps asking about when Tanzi will come home. It's really hard to explain to a 3 year old why mommy and daddy can go visit and hold Tanzi and why she and Gray can't. It seemed like it would be easy to live this life for a few weeks. Our family has been SO helpful!! But now we are realizing that we need to figure something out so that Kyri and Graysen can be home and have a somewhat normal life. And while this all seems to be so hard and such a trial for us right now, I know that in the end we will be a stronger, closer, more loving family than when it began! It's not hard to have faith in our Heavenly Father or to recognize His hand in this. We know that it is through our faith, along with all of yours that Tanzi is doing as well as she is. The hard part is simply enduring.