I’m typing this one handed, as Peanut is cat napping in my other arm…

It’s often said that no news is good news. Having noticed that it’s been awhile since the last post, that must be our excuse. The DW is working on a post to update everyone on Peanut. But, just in case she doesn’t get it finished as hoped, I’ll offer this: Peanut is doing good. I don’t want to steal her post, so I’ll leave it at that.

Now that things are settling in to the new normal around the house it means things should start returning to a new normal around The Dirt Road Home, too. The DW and I have started planning a few improvement projects around the house – either we’re starting to catch up on sleep, or we’ve gone off the deep end. We’re hoping to be regularly posting updates on the house and the kiddos antics soon.

It’s been a wonderfully uneventful few weeks since our last Peanut update.

Finally caught a smile on camera!

Peanut is now up to 8lbs. 15oz!!! She’s been going to see the gastroenterologists and surgeons in Iowa City every other week for check-ups. Our two goals for the next couple months are 1) to keep Peanut healthy and 2) to wean her off of TPN so that she can have her central line removed. The second goal will take some time, as it’s a slow process of adding 5 ml to her oral feeding every week or two, and slowly taking the calories out of her TPN…all while making sure she still gains weight.

We’re being diligent about staying at home and only taking her out for doctor appointments. Our homecare nurse is actually able to draw her weekly labs at home and deliver them to the lab for us, so we don’t have to expose her to more germs in the hospital. Since preemies are more susceptible to getting RSV (Respiratory Synctial Virus), Peanut is also getting RSV injections once a month from November through March – her nurse gave her the first injection last night. Lulu had the same injections when she was an infant. Couldn’t be better timing as both Sissy and Potato Boy have colds. 🙁

As for Peanut’s next surgery, we were originally aiming for a mid-winter date, but at this point, her doctors think it’s best to give her more time to grow – specifically give her remaining intestines time to grow, and her “poo” more time to thicken up to a pasty consistency before they will do her next surgery. We’re looking at a late spring, possibly even early summer date – and that’s okay with us, after four surgeries in three months, we’re ready for a break! It’s all about the “poo”…the consistency will determine when the next surgery will be.

Here’s where we get into a lot of talk about “poo”, so if talking about poo makes your stomach queasy, then skip to the next paragraph. 🙂 Right now Peanut’s poo is liquid and very acidic. If they reconnect her now, she will be battling severe wounds on her bottom – diaper rash x100 would be an understatement. As her intestines mature and grow, the walls of the intestine will develop more villi (think rolling hills) that will keep the poo in her system long enough to break down bile acid, and absorb nutrients. The docs tell us that with infants and young children who lose their colon, the small intestine will actually start to take over a little bit of the functions of the absent colon – like pulling out water from the poo – which will obviously help the consistency. It’s amazing what the body can adapt to!

Okay, no more poo talk. On to the fun stuff! During the last week in October we had a fabulous photographer, Thea Rentschler of Milestone Portraits by Thea, out to our house for family photos. It’s kind of become a tradition to have her take our family pictures every fall…Pippa even made it into a photo!

Milestone Portraits by Thea

Click here for a link to her blog where she posted a sneak peek of our session! Can’t wait to see the rest!!!

And Sissy turns 12 on Friday!!! It’s hard to believe, but it seems like just yesterday that she was Peanut’s size! Where does the time go?

We haven’t had much of a chance to update the site lately. Since the last post, I’ve been battling spam comments. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve deleted over 2000 comments in the last 10 days. Most of that was my fault – if I would have taken the time to modify a few of the spam filters earlier, it wouldn’t have been an issue. Now that it’s fixed, be watching for an update on Peanut in the next couple days.

Happy Halloween from the Pumpkin, Eskimo, S.W.A.T. Officer, and the Pouty Witch!

Next year I want them to team up… based on personalities, the three oldest would have made a great Klaus, Violet, and Sunny from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, though that wouldn’t allow for much in the way of dressing up… maybe M&Ms or the characters from Super Mario Brothers… only 364 more days to plan.

Peanut is doing very well at home since discharge, and has only one more day of antibiotics. She’s now up to 8lbs 2oz and 21 inches long. 🙂 Not much new to report – no news is good news! Peanut’s Grandpa & Nana dropped off a little gift for her….

Peanut now has her very own “Lil Peanut”!

And Lulu has found a new favorite thing to do with Peanut…

You can now follow updates on Peanut and the rest of our adventures by liking us on Facebook.

You never know who might drop by to say hi.

Peanut is getting discharged in a few hours! 🙂 Her blood cultures for the past few days have been negative for bacterica growth, so she will be going home on IV antibiotics until Sunday. This morning we will be learning how to operate an additional IV pump that will administer her antibiotics three times a day. In addition, they’ve made one small change to our routine for her broviac care that we found interesting. Normally, when Peanut is done with her TPN (IV Nutrition) for the day (which runs from 7pm to 9am), we flush her IV line with heparin so that no clots develop in the line. From here on out, instead of doing a heparin flush, we will be doing an “ethanol lock”. Our first reaction was ETHANOL?!?!?! That’s right, straight-up pure ethanol alcohol which will kill any bacteria should it enter through her line again. It’s a little tricky, but we will put in just enough ethanol (.3 ml to be exact) to fill the length of her central line, and then we pull it back out before we hook her up to her TPN in the evenings. The worst that could happen is that a tiny bit of alcohol enters her blood stream and she feels a little – well, tipsy 😉

A special thanks to our friends “B & B” for letting me crash at their place last night, instead of the couch in Peanut’s room, so I could get caught up on sleep before going home 🙂 The DH is on his way to Iowa City as I type….we’re homeward bound in 3 hours!!!!

Blood cultures showed bacteria growth in Peanut’s central line – so it is an infection afterall. However, Peanut has had no fever since 2am, is now awake and alert, and is back to taking all of her feedings. This is a big change from her condition 24 hrs ago. The antibiotics are working well, but with the confirmation of infection, it looks like she could be here for up to a week, just to be sure the infection is cleared up before going home. I will be staying with Peanut at the hospital throughout the week, while the Dear Husband holds down the fort at home.

Snuggling is the best cure for feeling under the weather!

The main test results are back. Peanut’s liver and white blood cell counts came back normal, although her inflammation markers are high. It could be an early sign of infection, if so, she’s already started on antibiotics so it should be cleared up in a couple days. The blood cultures won’t be back for 48 hours. If nothing suspcious grows in her blood culture we can go home after 48 hours from when the culture was taken (this afternoon).

Maybe Peanut decided she couldn’t miss being in Iowa City for the Iowa v. Penn State night game, or she thought that mom was craving a gyro from Sparty’s. Either way, with a low grade fever and a change in her ostomy output, Peanut earned herself a weekend re-admittance to the UIHC 2JCP pediatric floor. Though the doctors’ first impression was that the fever was caused by a virus, they want to rule out that it isn’t a sign of a more serious infection while Peanut is administered a course of antibiotics and we wait for the results of blood cultures. Hopefully, we’ll be back home soon.

CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATE ON PEANUT’S TEST RESULTS.