Daily Dose: Tuesday, March 31

Hope had another great day today. She was weaned on her ventilator settings and has been having great results with her blood gasses. Since she is one week out of surgery the nurses are trying to cut back on her sedation so she is awake more time.

Hope didn't take the feedings so well last night, so they were stopped, for now. Feedings will be tried again sometime soon. Hope's hematocrit was low as well and there were a few "episodes" so the doctors gave her a blood transfusion which should perk her up.

Hope got to snuggle with both Mommy & Daddy today. She is now up to 2520 grams, which is 20 grams up. She also has turned out to be quite the pisser. She had her heaviest diaper ever.... 132 grams. That is analogous to a 180 pound man making 5 pounds of urine in 4 hours.

Hope appears to be getting sick of her ET tube, finding more problems with that than with her belly. Hopefully the ventilator is gone in the next few days so we can get that ET tube out!!

Daily Dose: Monday, March 30

Hope had another good day today. AND.... she had another poop! Believe me, because Hope's Daddy was so proud he sent me a picture of it, so be glad that I have spared all of you faithful readers.

Hope's doctors decided to aggressively wean her off the ventilator which went very well. And surgery also decided to start her feeds!! The feeds are very very small right now, but it is great that she is making progress on both fronts!

They are also trying to decrease the morphine doses as it is known to slow down bowels, which obviously would be a tiny bit counter-productive!!

Mommy & Daddy report that Hope seems to be feeling more comfortable today, so we look forward to more good days this week!

Daily Dose: Sunday, March 29

Hope is looking extremely cute today, in case you didn't notice!!

Hope had another good day today. The doctors lowered her ventilator setting a little bit so that is good and she continues to be on the road to recovery. Both Mommy & Daddy got to hold Hope tonight. Grandma & Grandpa Robinson were on babysitting duty during the day while Mommy & Daddy took care of some business, but looks as though they were successful and held down the fort quite well!

Hope gained a little more weight today, she is now up to 5 pounds 7 ounces. Her belly is a little bigger than yesterday, which means she is still retaining fluid. She definitely needs to start losing this excess. In today's picture you can ALMOST see her belly. She has her hand near it, as if she is bashful and doesn't want her picture taken. Silly Hope, we've already taken all those embarrassing pictures of you, why stop now!!!

Daily Dose: Saturday, March 28

Hope had a very stable day. Her tummy is a little swollen but that is normal during recovery from surgery.

The big news for the day....... Hope had a poo today!! Daddy got to change his first poopy diaper (with many many more to come in the future). Daddy couldn't believe how excited he was to see poop! It means that something is working inside Hope.

Hope maintained the same weight as yesterday, which is okay after her big gain yesterday. Today she got to snuggle with BOTH mommy and daddy, which was the first time since her surgery!!!

Daily Dose: Friday, March 27

As you can see, Hope was awake for a little while this morning. She seemed to be tolerating her pain pretty well but is still out of it most of the time from all the medicine.

Hope's belly has gotten a bit bigger and she is retaining more fluids, putting her weight up to 2420 grams, which is 110 more than yesterday. Her doctor isn't concerned about it, but Hope does need to get rid of the excess fluid before she can begin feedings or be extubated. We are hoping next week for that.

It's so great to see, even if only via picture, Hope awake again and her beautiful little eyes. Unfortunately, someone has to break the bad news to Hope. Aunt Em was supposed to come and visit this weekend, and tell her all sorts of interesting stories about lots of things, but.... One of Aunt Em's professors was so kind and decided to have a MANDATORY class Saturday afternoon for 3 hours. So.... Aunt Em will not be seeing Hope this weekend. Aunt Em hopes that the bad news doesn't set Hope back at all. Aunt Em will be thinking of Hope all day on Saturday as she sits, very disgruntled, in school. But at least when Aunt Em goes next weekend she will get to hold Hope (fingers crossed), so at least the wait will be WELL WORTH IT!!!

Daily Dose: Thursday, March 26

Another great day for Hope!!!! Today Hope spent most of her day resting and recovering. Hope is still getting some Morphine and Versed which is keeping her very very comfortable. She had a chest x-ray this morning which showed improvement from yesterday's x-rays so her ventilator settings did not change.

Hope has peed off some more of the fluid she was retaining so her weight was 2310 grams today, but no worries, that is still above the 5 pound mark!!!!

Even though Hope hasn't been feeling her best lately, like a true fashion icon that she is, she did not let that get in the way of her high fashion lifestyle. Today Hope was modeling a new addition to the Hope Collection: a rockin' pink hat (brought to you from designers "cousins Kelly and Jerry"). Hope sent a special message to Aunt Em today, she said that she is truly beginning to understand how difficult it is to live in the world of high fashion and that she will need Aunt Em to teach her all the ins and outs, which obviously means A LOT OF SHOPPING in the future. I guess we can handle that.....

Daily Dose: Wednesday, March 25

Hope had another very restful and recovery filled day. Everyone is very excited at how well she is recovering from the big surgery. Today her nurse said that Hope is exhibiting the "best case scenario"!!! Hope's surgeon came and checked on her and said he thinks she is "coming out of the woods".

Hope hasn't gotten very puffy, which they expected her to, and the fluid she has retained she has been steadily peeing off. Hope's heart rate continued to be back down in the normal range and her blood gasses were all good. Her chest x-ray showed that she was a little under-inflated, but after she was repositioned that helped and it got better.

Hope is obviously retaining some fluid, which might possibly be skewing her weight, but she weighed in today as the biggest fatty FOR SURE!!! She weighed in at 2390 grams, which is 5 pounds 4 ounces!!!! That's right, over 5 pounds!!! Way to go biggest fatty!!!

Daily Dose: Tuesday, March 24

Hope had a very restful day today. She spent the day on Morphine to relieve the pain and Versed to forget that she ever had surgery. By tonight her blood pressure and heart rate had leveled out somewhat, so that is good.

Hope had another eye exam today and there was no change from two weeks ago, so we are grateful that everything still looks good. The doctors and nurses are very happy with her recovery so far. They were prepared for Hope to be very sick today (in typical Robinson style) but so far she has done really well.

We are thankful for a good day today and we look forward to another one tomorrow and many more in the future.

Update on Hope

Hope, Pre-surgery, Just chillin'

Hope, Post-surgery, with her pretty pink bow

Thank you everyone for all your thoughts and prayers for Hope today. As Aunt Em as said, surgery went well for Hope today. The surgeons were very happy with how everything went. Hope is resting sound tonight with some morphine to help with her pain. She got a little too warm after surgery and that caused her heartrate to be a bit elevated but once they got her cooled off a bit she settled right down. Everyone thought she might get a bit puffy (one of the side effects of the surgery) but so far she is not showing any signs of this. All in a all a great day for Hope - one more (Huge) step closer to coming home.

As you can see from the picture Hope was not about to let surgery hold her back from being stylish. Erin (one of her very nice nurses) made her a pretty pink bow to wear while she is recovering. Thank you Erin!

Pray for Hope

Hope has had a great morning. Grandpa says she was wide awake and "it must be nice not knowing what's ahead." They took Hope down to the OR for her reconnection surgery. The doctors expect this surgery to last around 3 hours. Please pray for the doctors, that they will have skilled hands. Pray for Hope, that she will handle the procedure well and bounce back quickly. And pray for Hope's family as they wait anxiously, knowing that it is out of their hands.



UPDATE***** 2.35pm EST*****

Hope is out of surgery. The doctors said everything went well. They found a small obstruction in her lower bowel which they think may have been the cause of the infections. They pushed that through fine. They also removed her appendix for good measure so she won't have to worry about complications with that later. She is back on the ventilator and will be for a few days but looks like everything went well.