CHOC Day 9: Jello Makes Everything Better!

You know, I got woken up this morning in a not very good fashion, had to almost shank someone twice for my daughters wagon, and they didn't give me guacamole for lunch like I asked, but today ended up being amazing! Stephen is finally home and Caitlin finally got to talk to her daddy about everything that has been going on for the past 9 days, Caitlin ate amazing like she has been and the best news ever, SHE DRANK HER MEDICINE BY MOUTH!!!!! Sorry about the caps lock fury there, but this was one of the conditions of getting her tube out. It didn't taste good by any means, but we washed it down with some strawberry J-E-L-L-O :)  It was great she was able to call her daddy and YELL into the phone, " GUESS WHO DRANKEDED ALL HER MEDICINE BY MOUTTTHHHHHH? MEEEEE!!" Most awesome feeling as a parent ever, when your child is so proud of herself that she wants to tell the whole wide world, including the nurse :)

Best back off my ride, yo.

Breakfast was eaten again in the cafeteria. It was hash browns, banana with peanut butter, milk and some cream of wheat (she thought that was slime too lol).

AM snack consisted of goldfish, Jello, and milk in which she scarfed down like there was no tomorrow. :)

You can see how much weight shes gained by her cheeks lol

Lunch was a little new for her today. She really liked the chicken tacos from the other night and we are still trying to work on meat with her because her jaw is so weak, so we did beef tacos! Guess what? She ate the whole thing. We separated all the ingredients, let her throw them together along with animal crackers and french fries in the taco lol, and she gobbled it all up.

We have learned with Caitlin that she has to have something to dip it in, and we need to make her a recipe book called Caitlin's Creations. This child has come up with her own concoctions (she calls recipe), that she thinks that she would like to write one. For instance, Caitlin sauce is mayo, mustard, and ketchup, you mix it all together and its the color of her hair, hence Caitlin sauce LOL. I love this kid.

We were counting how long it took to chew her goldfish

PM snack was a little difficult only because she had strawberries and thats really the only thing so far texture wise that has her wincing every time she eats it. She got to dip it in chocolate sauce and whipped cream so it wasn't bad, and mommy got the leftovers ;)

Dinner was great, she ate half a hot dog, half her mashed potatoes, 5 cooked carrots, half of my roll and a whole 8oz glass of carnation instant breakfast (Caitlin's chocolate milk).  The room service forgot to put her Oreo's on the tray when they brought it up, so after dinner because she did so great, we went and got cookies from the downstairs cafeteria :)

All in all its been a very fun week I think all around so far and its only going to get better as my little sister Haley, is going to come up to surprise Caitlin tomorrow and come eat dinner with us, and Stephen gets here on Friday! Then this weekend we get 4 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday to leave the hospital and go wherever we want, but not home lol. I think Saturday we will do the kids discovery museum here and then Sunday we will hit up Irvine Spectrum, a movie and Cheesecake factory. Haley is also coming up on Sunday so its going to be a really great weekend!

Another thing that I am super stoked about is that the Feeding Team told me today that at the beginning of next week they are admitting another feeding team patient! This is the first time they have ever overlapped patients and they are hoping to use Caitlin as a little bit of therapy for the new child that is coming in. I am so excited both for the new patients family but for Caitlin, as shes going to get to help him learn how to eat for a week. They are also excited that Caitlin will be the one here for this because of her outgoing personality and because of the way her eating has progressed they are hoping that the other child will see it as a positive. I have nothing but high hopes for the new family. I know their child will do amazing and I haven't even met them yet :)