Eva Update

Dear Friends and family,

Well first of all let me apologize for taking so long to send out an update. I know I have waited to long when my cell phone starts ringing more than twice a day. When we last left you little Eva was doing great with all that she was up against. Tubes and wires everywhere and recovering from surgery. They finally started to feed her formula, beginning at 5cc's. ( I know what you are thinking, thats not very much, but for those of you who have ever tasted or smelled baby formula 5cc's is a lifetime supply for the ol' Claymonster) She took her measly 5 cc's and did good so they started increasing her feeds by 5cc's daily until she got to 25 cc's. Then much like beer is to a younger Clay it just wasn't enough. She went from 25 to 40 to 50 to 55 to 65 in a matter of 2 days and that is classified as a full feed for an infant....Yee Haaa Hooray for little Eva.... After we tackled the the whole feeding issue we faced our next obstacle, POOPING...... we waited and waited and waited for the elusive and distinctive smell of the old dirty diaper and it never came. After they gave her a suppository she would poop but she would not go by herself.... (she's so modest.....just like her mother.....cough cough.) The Neonatologist then started mentioning things to Renea like maybe she has another blockage or perhaps they didn't remove enough of her large intestine which made my whole world tougher because then i was trying to be supportive to two babies. The doctor even made the comment on Friday as she was leaving for the weekend that "If she doesn't go by herself over the weekend then I am going to order a lower GI (Barium Enema) on Monday." Then today it came. It reared its ugly head. I went to the hospital first thing this morning for my now traditional Sunday morning power breakfast. The nurse informed me that she made a little smudge in her diaper overnight and elation ensued.... I was thrilled. The nurse equated it to a thumb print and kind of burst my balloon as she handed me Eva's bottle for me to feed her. About 5 minutes into breakfast I started getting suspicious because of her grunting and her face turning bright red and then came the smell...............she pooped more than a smudge....this was a smidgen... I changed her diaper which is kind of like working a possessed marionette with all of the tubes and wires and me being out of practice for 7 years and Eva fighting me every step of the way, then we continued feeding........she started grunting and her face started turning bright red again....and then the smell came again..... I felt like a child at Christmas this one was even bigger than the smidgen. So I changed her diaper again (10 minutes each time....seriously) and we resumed. Well evidently 2 times during breakfast was not enough and her insides did some kind of exorcism on all of the waste products in her body. She smugly smiled as I was forced to change her diaper a third time in 30 minutes and the nurse commented that that one was definitely a Jumbo. To make a really long story short, she began pooping just in the nick of time and we are waiting with baited breath to see what the doctors say tomorrow. She might actually get to come home this week!!!!!!!! She is up to 8 lbs. and 2 oz. and is no longer attached to anything other than a set of leads monitoring her vital signs. That poor little baby has had I.V.s in every part of her body including her head and they are finally all gone. Every ones prayers and good wishes paid off big for us and we are eternally grateful. Sorry the email is so long but I couldn't help myself. Hopefully my next update will be our last but if its not that's OK we will continue to deal with these issues as they come up. Have a great day and enjoy our Halloween pictures.

All of our love to you all.

Clay and Renea