“Dear Lord help me…..”.

I have to show you these precious pictures of Ava. For some reason when I shot the picture she looked up and it looks as though she is saying, “Dear Lord help me get all my marbles in this trunk.” Babies praying oh yea I believe they do!

Ava is still struggling with getting up to her full feeds. She hit 777 ml’s the other day and it looks like she will be a little less today. I keep her at a low rate. The night it is set at 30-35 ml’s per hour and the day I don’t go higher than 45 ml’s. She wants to eat and I do give in and give her crackers. Last night was the first time she threw up since last Saturday. It was because of the Nexium….I know it. The script says to give all 15 ml’s. She got very sick within 2 minutes and it all came back up. I then gave her the Zantac later that night since she obviously didn’t get her PPI. Today I did 5 ml’s over 15 minutes and so far it has stayed down. She is sleeping now and that is when I gave it to her. I figured if her tummy is upset she will probably sleep through it. That is my hope.

She has been gaggy today. We try to steer her away from bringing it up. Then she did throw up today about 35 ml’s. Her tummy is just really sensitive. However she is drinking lots of liquids on her own. I’d say about 6-10 ounces a day…..nothing like when they “starved” her in the hospital. (Disclaimer I say what I say and don’t apologize in case you are wondering!) I do understand their philosophy but I don’t believe God would put the desire for her to eat only to be sick……..

She loves our marble roller. She can spend lots of time rolling every single marble down even one at a time. If you are wondering……Brian’s grandfather made it for his kids when they were little. When his grandparents passed we had replica’s made. They have a story and I love that about old toys. She is finally old enough to understand she can’t put the marbles in her mouth so we got it out. See the concentration in her eyes?

Ava dances around to the Wiggles and she has lots of energy lately. She knows all the moves. When she doesn’t know I will video her and show you all……it is WAY too cute. I smile and thank God for His goodness.

This has got to be a new favorite picture of Ava. She loaded all the marbles in her trike and then got on and took off.

Don’t you wish you were two again? Okay so no but it is an age of exploration! She is doing so-so we are still praying that this is an overgrowth of bacteria and NOT an obstruction. Pray Miss Ava gets better and we climb the hill of wellness! We love and thank you all!

~The Helmick’s