Cheers!

We are hopeful that Rory will be coming home on Friday (Feb 22nd). She will be coming home on continuous tube feeds of the special hypoallergenic formula. The idea is that she will transition from tube feeds to regular oral feeding slowly, but at home. She will at some point down the line be reintroduced to breast milk. Her second surgery is postponed until some later date TBD (several months- likely around her 6 month birthday). There's a lot of hoopla right now in preparing to have her come home- arranging to get the pump for the feeds (apparently we have to buy a special pump and will be trained to use and troubleshoot it tomorrow) and all the accouterments, along with all of the ostomy care stuff and formula etc etc ($$$$$!) Thankfully there is a case manager at the hospital working on all of this for us right now. She is also working with our insurance company's case manager to ensure that as much of this as possible will be covered. It gets complicated quickly so we're really glad that there is someone who can help us out!

In the meantime, we are continuing to take turns at the hospital each night. We aim to spend as much time as possible with Alex. Alex is getting used to the routine- though he still insists that he doesn't want to say good-bye to mama and dada at the hos-ipal. We had a lovely, but brief visit from Makiko this past weekend.

Alex and Emmitt at Emmitt's house. They were talking to each other through the long tube until Emmitt wanted to see the pcitures...After Jonah's treehouse, many of us go across the street for dinner, the kids are entertaining themselves (not really) with crayons and play-do

Grandma Jill, Alex, Baby Rory and Monkey at the hos-ipal

Peter the lion chasing and tickling Alex

Nana and Baby Rory

Cousin Makiko came down to visit for presidents day weekend- here she is meeting the youngest member of the family!