Answered Prayers

I am so overwhelmed with all the answered prayers we have experienced this week. We are so grateful to our friends, family and church for praying. Most of all, we are grateful to God for His grace in our lives. It's amazing (hmmm...I guess that's why the hymn is called Amazing Grace!). Melody was discharged from the hospital Thursday afternoon and is doing really well. We discovered a sure-fire way to get her to drink: give her milkshakes! For now, she is living on ice cream/milkshake mixed with some formula. She can start eating stage 1 and 2 baby food tomorrow (Saturday). She seems to be managing the pain well. We don't even have to use the Tylenol with Codeine much at all. We'll see how she does with eating tomorrow. She seems to have accepted the splints on her arms as a fact of life for now, but they do make it hard to get comfortable in bed. I'm a little concerned that milk seems to be coming out her nose, which makes me wonder if there is, indeed, a hole up there somewhere. We'll see the doctor next week and find out more.

The other fantastic news is that Julie made it through her CT scan without sedation!!!!! I can't even describe how thrilled, proud, shocked, and grateful I am about it. She had to lie on a board with her head in a U-shaped receptacle. Then they fastened velcro around her torso and secured a band across her forehead. She was really nervous about it all and it seemed like we might have to opt for sedation. But, Larry held her hands and put his thumb under her chin to help stabilize her head while I stood behind her with the DVD player. She couldn't see the screen, but she could hear the music playing and that was enough. She has such an amazing memory that I know she was seeing the movie in her mind. I could even see her trying to mouth the words to the songs. It helped her to keep still long enough for the techs to get their scans done in between her little movements. It felt like a true miracle when they said "that's it!" No IV, no medications, no sleeping it off for 24 hours. Did I mention how proud I am of my big girl?

Both of them are sleeping right now, so I need to go rest too. We don't sleep through the night too much around here these days. Maybe tonight will be a nice surprise. It is Larry's birthday, so that would be a great present. Thanks again for following along and offering encouragement during our challenges this week. We appreciate all of you!