Day 1: Checking In

This morning we said goodbye to daddy and Cameron and my parents.  Daddy left for school first. Then we got Cameron all packed and ready to go. He will have lots of fun with Gramma and Grampa in Az and will be safe and loved.  Whitney and I then drove to CHOC singing the whole way!

I love a super tubie!!

We made it to "Camp CHOC!" We are very excited to be here! We parked and got checked in. Hauled our luggage up to our room and got settled in. Whitney did very good but maybe a little confused. 

We had a lot of different nurses and specialists come to talk with us and give us notes and tours. It was very busy! Whitney got to play in the play room and make some fun crafts! I think she will love it there! And I was even brave enough to leave her in there alone so I could get some things done and unpack. She was very happy and did great! Whitney painted some sun catchers, colored on the black paper that has rainbow under it, and made a bracelet with her name on it! 

Her room was decorated with finding Nemo and the little mermaid photos because those are her some of her fave movies! I added some photos of my own too!  It's pretty comfortable here considering its a hospital room. 

I hung up clip boards so I can change out the photos easily every day!

Whitney and I made this poster for her room. We will write on the calendar all the things she did and ate that day! And she can be reminded of her family that believes in her!

 And we both made this simple little sign to go above her bed like at home!

Whitney had a little time to watch part of Frozen in between meals.  And her toys needed to watch it too! 

So when we got here around noon, I offered Whitney a banana and raisins for lunch while I tube fed her some pureed baby food. She nibbled on the banana. 

For snack time, the therapist came in to help. Whitney ate 2 lays potato chips, a teaspoon of yogurt, and half an ounce of boost essentials vanilla. It took about an hour and a lot of encouraging. She did cry once because she didn't want to do something and then wanted to do it herself. 

For dinner Whitney ate 2 Mac and cheese noodles, several tiny bites of watermelon maybe equalling one small chunk, and a half ounce of boost kid essentials with just me and using her jar of fuzzies. But after her last sip of milk, she threw up. Oh so sad! Not sure why because she was drinking it fine but she does seem to swallow air when she takes her sips of milk so maybe she needed to burp too. 

Later we had another snack together of milk and graham crackers. Whitney gave me a pack and she got a pack. I busted out some Nutella I brought and she ate a quarter of the cracker and a tiny bit of Nutella on it. She only drank two sips of milk. 

We started her tube feeding, of compleat pediatric, around 8:30pm.  She will get 480mls (two cartons) of formula over 4 hours every night this week. More or less depending on how much she eats during the day. She also gets cyproheptadine and randidatine via tubie every night.  

Whitney is doing pretty good. She got upset when they took her blood pressure and examined her, but she sat on my lap and was fine afterwards. Then she got upset when they came in with her pump and formula. I told her I was going to hook her up just like at home. She just has a lot of anxiety around nurses still. So I did it and she was better when they left.  I'm grateful they don't come in at night and let us sleep! Whitney fell asleep around 8:45pm.

Whitney and I would love to receive letters and packages while we are bound here for the next three weeks! Here's our address: 

    CHOC Children's Hospital

    1201 W. La Veta Ave.

    Orange, CA 92868

    ATTN: Whitney Montgomery Rm# 313

Weight: 15.5 kg (about 34lbs)