Still on the Road to Recovery

Sorry about the lack of updates the last two days, but the women of the Cermak household are sick (Evie, of course, and Sharon lost her voice and has some sort of cold). I've had several very late nights with Evie the last three days, and we're all exhausted and running on fumes.

Evie is holding steady, and a lot of her personality is coming back now that she's off of the Ativan, but she is still coughing up a TON of mucus and spitting up a lot of the formula she gets via her NG tube. Despite being off the Ativan for about 4 days now, she still doesn't seem to have much of an appetite and takes little by mouth; maybe an ounce of formula or baby food from time to time.

She hasn't gained any weight for a week, and sometimes her coughing is so violent she breaks out in a sweat and has turned blue occasionally, prompting us to up her oxygen amount temporarily. We thought she was getting over all this coughing/mucus production last Thursday and Friday, but late Saturday night it came back with a vengeance and this past Sunday was very tough on her. She also hasn't been sleeping well because the coughing wakes her up and I've had to change her crib sheets and jams 2-3 times a night.

I took her to see a new pulmonary specialist on Monday who changed her nebulizer treatment, but I didn't think the doctor was very interested in her and didn't do a very good job examining her. Sharon took her to get a chest x-ray today and she will see one of the cardiologists from Hope Children's Hospital on Wednesday to try and figure out why she is producing so much mucus.

Below, Evie needs to gain so weight, so she's going to try Mom's snack bars.

Here's Gavin using his new reading perch. Perhaps it's time to buy some toddler chairs?

Gavin has really been into some books that Uncle Mark and Aunt Robin bought the twins a few months back that show lots of real-world objects, animals and people with the words.

Gavin got pretty good at the toy below where you have to use different motor skills to activate the pop-up. Here he is showing out his mad skillz to Evie. Evie's scars are healing well, her diaper rash is better every day and her skin is a lot less dry too. You can click on the picture for a larger size.

Before the surgery the twins loved to play in their high chairs together, and they fell right back into their old routines. Here's Gavin showing Evie some of the new things he learned to do while she was in the hospital, like... slamming his head back against his high chair (yes, we're so proud). It's kind of funny except when he does it against the cabinets!