Home Sweet Home

Sorry to have been out of touch for a little while. Hospital stays tend to be a bit time consuming. We are finally home! I was so glad to see everyone and to actually sleep in my bed. Victoria was glad to have all the IV's and wires taken out. Poor baby has bruises everywhere. I think they tried to get an IV started in about 5 different places until they finally got one in her chest.

The best part of the trip was meeting so many nice people. Becky, on the right, has been following my blog and e-mailed me. She lives in Philly and asked if I needed anything. Normally, I would try to be polite and not ask for anything, but this time, I was pretty darn hungry. The care at Shriner's is wonderful, but the food is kind of scary. Becky brought me lunch AND a cookie!!! Thank you Becky!

Here is the view from my window. Every new nurse who came into the room warned me, over and over, not to go outside after dark. I figured we had enough excitement going on inside the hospital, so we didn't do any thrill seeking.

It took four people to pick Victoria up the first time. The cast is heavy! I have gotten used to lifting her now, except it is a little scary to carry her up the stairs. The important thing is that I can't lift her by her arms or the weight of her might yank her hips back out. Yikes! I am amazed about how something can seem so overwhelming, but once you have to do it, over and over, you can do anything!

This is Dawn and her son from China. We had a great time talking.

The hospital lent us a carseat called the "hippo". It is enormous! Victoria was not too thrilled with it. The plan is for us to come back to Shriner's in four weeks. She will be sedated again and the doctor will try to move her socket deeper into the hips. Then, she will be re-casted for another five weeks. This wasn't what I expected, but, after my initial freak out, I think this is a good plan.

Her legs are spread 28 inches wide, so we needed the Suburban wheelchair model. The ice pack is to help with the swelling. Poor baby.

I asked the doctor to take a picture of her hand before they put on the cast. She has two pins in her thumbs. They actually had to cut the bone in her thumb to rotate it. They took skin from her wrist and grafted it onto her fingers so she could have more flexibility. The good news is that once the cast comes off, she won't need to have any dressings done like Francesca did.

Here is some scary looking dinner. I think they thought Victoria was going to be eating a variety of food, but so far, she has regressed back to white food only. We have to syringe yogurt into her mouth. She doesn't even want Pedisure. Hopefully she will feel like eating soon.

This is what happens when Mommy draws on Victoria's casts with non-permanent marker. 

Victoria has such an amazing spirit.

She grabbed the stethoscope away from the nurse and promptly put it on her heart. Such a smart girl!

My friend, Carla, who also adopted from Ukraine, was in a different hospital with her baby in Philly. She had been there for weeks, so she took a taxi over to Shriner's and we had a Philly Cheese steak party! Thank you to my friend Catherine who drove in downtown Friday traffic to get these for us! Yum!

We have tried everything to get Victoria to drink on her own.

Here we are in Chicago for our layover. Tylenol with Codeine and Valium are definitely good friends of ours here!

Getting on the airplane was a bit tricky. I had to walk across an open bridge onto the plane. I am scared of heights anyway, but to carry a baby in a cast across the bridge was tough. The aisle was narrow too, so I had to kind of tip her sideways. She was such a trooper!

Francesca was quite worried about Victoria. Little does she know that in three weeks, she will be in casts again. My goal is to be done with casts by June, so we can enjoy the summer. I am hoping Victoria starts sleeping soon. She is very vigilant, watching everything around her. After all, look what happened to her the last time she fell asleep!

When Mommy is tired, everyone gets chocolate cake for breakfast!

Yummy!!!

This is the first time I have been able to hold Victoria this way, with her legs around me.  Now that her hips are re-located, we can snuggle. She doesn't like me to sit down, but wants me to walk around with her this way. My back may need a brace soon! I also had to take out her pain catheter today. I had to slide one finger under her cast, peel off the surgical tape and gently pull out the catheter. The nurse informed me that I had to see the black tip at the end of the catheter, or it was bad, very, very bad. I think I have gotten about 100 new gray hairs just today.

Since I was so tired, I let the girls pick out whatever they wanted for dinner at the grocery store. I have never seen them so thrilled. They got a "Hungry Man" frozen meal. They talked on and on about how it had mashed potatoes and a brownie. I may never need to cook again!

Victoria is quite the diva. She will only take a taste of something and then she pushed it away if it is not to her liking. Tomorrow my husband will be at work and I am on my own. Things are going to be fine, right? Just fine! Thank you all for all your prayers and thoughts!