Abby's glimpse of the next stage

Yesterday morning as Ellie and I lay in bed together I talked the nurses into letting Ellie get her milk by bottle. When the head nurse came back and said that the doctors had approved it, I was ecstatic. I headed down to get breakfast and while waiting for the elevator I couldn’t hold it in any more. As the lady next to me said good morning I replied with, “My daughter is going to drink out of a bottle this morning!” Now anywhere else that would be considered an odd reply, but not at Children’s.

Everyone around me gave a small cheer.

Yesterday was a big day in many ways. The three of us went to playroom on our floor for parent coffee hour. Ellie got tummy time while Gib and I realized how lucky Ellie is yet again for the simplicity or her problem.

Right after coffee hour Ellie’s nurse ran a test to see if Ellie was able to maintain her own blood sugar by taking her off of her TPN for an hour. What that meant is that we got to walk around the hospital for half of that time with a baby with no IV stand. With Ellie all bundled up she looks just like any other normal baby and I didn’t have to worry about how fast I was walking or if the pole would tip as I got into the elevator. It was great, and gave me a glimpse of how good life will be when she is off the TPN either for short periods or for good.

I spent the night with Ellie Monday night and had a much quieter night.

And this is the scene that I saw as I arrived in the room.

I guess you now know how Gib has all that time to write in the Blog.