Bye Bye

Shayna officially and consistently waves bye-bye.  Every time the nurses or doctors would leave our room I'd say and wave bye-bye.  She caught on yesterday and waved with me every time.  Such a brilliant girl.

We got returned from the alternate universe (aka the hospital) yesterday afternoon.  She didn't lose as much weight this time, only about .25kg instead of the the 1kg last time.  She does seem happier and it feels like we can holder her more easily (the big bulbuous belly makes holding her harder).  The hard time about this last stay is that she didn't adjust.  Normally she's is uptight for the first 2-3 hours then settles in with just a little more fussiness.  This time she would not relax at all so barely slept, which means that Ima slept even less.  She normally wakes up twice between 8pm and 7am, eats, then goes back to sleep.  Monday night she was exhausted at 7pm but I couldn't get her to sleep until 9:30.  Then she woke at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep until 2:30am (see picture).  Woke at 4:30 to eat, then 6:30 for the day.  She usually takes two 2-hour naps but instead took two 45-minute naps, just enough for me the pump and shower the first time then clean up and start packing the 2nd.  Luckily next week she'll be on pain meds that will make her sleep plus I'll have Michael there to help.  (Nahum did take her last night so I got 10hrs to make up for it.)

Today I get to pretend like I'm Leslie (my fulltime mom friend with 3 kids and no outside help).  No outside help means I get to spend a lot more time folding laundry and washing bottles instead of sorting insurance paperwork and hospital bills, uploading pictures, writing emails, and of course my daily Kakuro (I gotta have a little fun).  Plus, I need to redo my hospital suit case which was packed so nicely in preparation for next week.  Time to work while the baby sleeps.

Peeing Like a Race Horse

Shayna gained ~.25kg each week for the last two weeks in water weight in her abdomen (girth is up from 49cm to 54cm) and her albumin levels are down enough to justify another over night hospital stay for 2 albumin transfusions (a protein found in blood).  The greater the ascites (abdomenal fluid retention), the greater the risk of infection as the collecting fluid tends to increase the porosity of the organs which then allows bacteria to seep through.  This can lead to a major infection and serious complications and is the main reason we're in the hospital.  From what I understand, I think the albumin in the blood stream will instigate the vessels to suck the fluid back in to reach a new equilibrium.  She'll get 2 doses of diuretic and pee a lot of the fluid out.  She looks like a characature of humpty dumpty and is moving a little more like a fragile egg too.  Losing this fluid should help a lot and make the last week before transplant much more fun.