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Dear Family & Friends,

This is the 1st week since Lorena came home 10 weeks ago that we have no appointments at all for her. So we get a nice and quiet week. Lorena got her immunization shots last week and this made her fussy for a few days like most babies. We thought we finally had a nice routine going and then Lorena throws us for a loop again. It was nice to be able to nurse Lorena for most feeds as long as she wanted and then top her off with the NG tube but as it turns out now she also does not want to nurse much any more. I think the immunization caused this at first but it has been almost a week now and she only nursed a few times. I will keep trying and continue to offer it to her but for now we have to put full feeds through the NG tube. I have a love/hate relationship with the NG feeding tube. I am thankful for this NG tube as it is probably keeping Lorena from starving and alive but I hate it as it is such a mechanical, non personal way to feed your baby. I feel better after having read in the book about the NG feeding that most moms are emotional about this way of feeding. It is good to know that I am not the only mom who has difficulties with this emotionally from time to time. Normally when feeding the baby you bond at the same time, even with bottle feeding you hold your baby. It seems so natural but to me it is a privilege to be able to hold and nurse her for even a few minutes at a time. Lorena has also been spitting up more, as in vomiting out the whole bottle. It sounds so simple when you hear this but we spend about 30 min trying to get her to nurse and then 1 hour to get the milk into her as it can not drip to fast or she will also vomit it all out. We lay her in the stroller to keep her on a nice angle so the milk does not run back up her throat and we seem to be constantly adjusting the drip as it tends to run to slow or to fast, off and on, as it runs through. When close to the end of the feed she vomits the bottle all out we change her and clean her up and start all over replacing the feed she spit up. In those situations the feeding times almost run into each other and there are no breaks in between feeds. It is a good thing we do this together as I also need to fit time in to pump yet every 3 hours. I have been pumping for 3 months/13 weeks now and believe me it is a task but I am not prepared to give up yet and hope she will start nursing some yet again. Still we are enjoying our little girl very much as she is so ready and eager to give us her big smiles and she is now talking up a storm a lot of the wake time. She also has figured out how to hit the toys hanging above her in the playpen. It is nice to see that her development is fine in comparison to other healthy babies.

We talked to the respiratory doctor about Lorena going off of the oxygen and as far as she understands from the cardiologist, Lorena's Pulmunary Hypertension has healed (thank the Lord) and so she no longer has this. We still need to confirm this with the cardiologist who knows more about this. Now the question is how well she will continue to do without the oxygen. For now we are enjoying it so much to have her without the hose attached to her. It makes things so much easier. We plan to meet with the cardiologist at the end of the month. We can hardly wait as we want to know and understand as much as possible about her heart condition. We hope and pray it will all be good news.

Janita and Jeremy have been taking turns in having colds and flues it seems as we always seem to have one or the other sick and in need of keeping them at a distance from Lorena. We are thankful that neither Lodewyk or I have had any cold or flue, so that we can continue to care for Lorena without putting her at more risk. It is no wonder there are a lot of colds etc. going around with the temperatures fluctuating the way they have over the last week. The one day we get a half foot of snow and a few days later it is 20 degrees, that's Alberta weather for you. Jeremy made use of this opportunity (maybe the last one this season) to build a snow man with daddy but it sure melted away mighty fast with the temperatures going up so fast.

Lorena's weight gain seems to be going up and down all the time. It remains a struggle to get her to gain enough weight. Just 2 weeks ago she had gained so well and then the previous week she had not gained any at all and even lost weight. Tomorrow Lucy the homecare nurse will come again to weigh Lorena and we hope she will have gained weighed again over the past week.

This week again we were amazed at how the Lord takes care and for the wonderful compassionate people we are privileged to know. We were once again blessed with the gift of money to cover 1 month of oxygen for Lorena. Lorena is off oxygen now but we are not allowed to remove the oxygen tanks from the house yet, as it is a trial period and so the bills still keep coming in for that. We are so thankful for this gift of caring from a family who them self have gone through so much as they lost their precious baby before he was 1 year old.

I have added a comment page to our website. So if you want to email me a comment then please go to this page and click on the mailbox or put "Lorena's Story" in the subject and then I will know to add this (cut and paste) to the comments sheet. I plan to print out all these comments for Lorena to read when she gets older. So your comments will be a nice keepsake for Lorena.

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/lorejj20/comments.htm

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Lodewyk, Rena, Janita, Jeremy and Lorena


	A quiet week for Lorena
	April 15, 2008 Dear Family & Friends, This is the 1st week since Lorena came home 10 weeks ago that we have no appointments at all for her. So we get a nice and quiet week. Lorena got her immunization shots last week and this made her fussy for a few days like most babies. We thought we finally had a nice routine going and then Lorena throws us for a loop again. It was nice to be able to nurse Lorena for most feeds as long as she wanted and then top her off with the NG tube but as it turns out now she also does not want to nurse much any more. I think the immunization caused this at first but it has been almost a week now and she only nursed a few times. I will keep trying and continue to offer it to her but for now we have to put full feeds through the NG tube. I have a love/hate relationship with the NG feeding tube. I am thankful for this NG tube as it is probably keeping Lorena from starving and alive but I hate it as it is such a mechanical, non personal way to feed your baby. I feel better after having read in the book about the NG feeding that most moms are emotional about this way of feeding. It is good to know that I am not the only mom who has difficulties with this emotionally from time to time. Normally when feeding the baby you bond at the same time, even with bottle feeding you hold your baby. It seems so natural but to me it is a privilege to be able to hold and nurse her for even a few minutes at a time. Lorena has also been spitting up more, as in vomiting out the whole bottle. It sounds so simple when you hear this but we spend about 30 min trying to get her to nurse and then 1 hour to get the milk into her as it can not drip to fast or she will also vomit it all out. We lay her in the stroller to keep her on a nice angle so the milk does not run back up her throat and we seem to be constantly adjusting the drip as it tends to run to slow or to fast, off and on, as it runs through. When close to the end of the feed she vomits the bottle all out we change her and clean her up and start all over replacing the feed she spit up. In those situations the feeding times almost run into each other and there are no breaks in between feeds. It is a good thing we do this together as I also need to fit time in to pump yet every 3 hours. I have been pumping for 3 months/13 weeks now and believe me it is a task but I am not prepared to give up yet and hope she will start nursing some yet again. Still we are enjoying our little girl very much as she is so ready and eager to give us her big smiles and she is now talking up a storm a lot of the wake time. She also has figured out how to hit the toys hanging above her in the playpen. It is nice to see that her development is fine in comparison to other healthy babies. We talked to the respiratory doctor about Lorena going off of the oxygen and as far as she understands from the cardiologist, Lorena's Pulmunary Hypertension has healed (thank the Lord) and so she no longer has this. We still need to confirm this with the cardiologist who knows more about this. Now the question is how well she will continue to do without the oxygen. For now we are enjoying it so much to have her without the hose attached to her. It makes things so much easier. We plan to meet with the cardiologist at the end of the month. We can hardly wait as we want to know and understand as much as possible about her heart condition. We hope and pray it will all be good news. Janita and Jeremy have been taking turns in having colds and flues it seems as we always seem to have one or the other sick and in need of keeping them at a distance from Lorena. We are thankful that neither Lodewyk or I have had any cold or flue, so that we can continue to care for Lorena without putting her at more risk. It is no wonder there are a lot of colds etc. going around with the temperatures fluctuating the way they have over the last week. The one day we get a half foot of snow and a few days later it is 20 degrees, that's Alberta weather for you. Jeremy made use of this opportunity (maybe the last one this season) to build a snow man with daddy but it sure melted away mighty fast with the temperatures going up so fast. Lorena's weight gain seems to be going up and down all the time. It remains a struggle to get her to gain enough weight. Just 2 weeks ago she had gained so well and then the previous week she had not gained any at all and even lost weight. Tomorrow Lucy the homecare nurse will come again to weigh Lorena and we hope she will have gained weighed again over the past week. This week again we were amazed at how the Lord takes care and for the wonderful compassionate people we are privileged to know. We were once again blessed with the gift of money to cover 1 month of oxygen for Lorena. Lorena is off oxygen now but we are not allowed to remove the oxygen tanks from the house yet, as it is a trial period and so the bills still keep coming in for that. We are so thankful for this gift of caring from a family who them self have gone through so much as they lost their precious baby before he was 1 year old. I have added a comment page to our website. So if you want to email me a comment then please go to this page and click on the mailbox or put "Lorena's Story" in the subject and then I will know to add this (cut and paste) to the comments sheet. I plan to print out all these comments for Lorena to read when she gets older. So your comments will be a nice keepsake for Lorena. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/lorejj20/comments.htm Thank you all for your continued prayers. Lodewyk, Rena, Janita, Jeremy and Lorena Not so happy. Lorena fell asleep in the playpen for the 1st time. Having fun in the playpen. She loves hitting those toys to make then rattle. Lorena likes to throw her head way back when she sleeps. Ever tried sleeping while holding your hand up? Lorena does it all the time. Just snoozing! Lorena sleeping in the stroller, her day time bed and feeding seat. Sleeping is what babies do best. Time for a diaper change! The down stairs baby changing station moved from the kitchen table to this new change table we added to the kitchen. Our three some Lorena being fed through the NG tube. Jeremy with his April snowman