Saturday Update

Jude has been doing pretty well today.  He still has his IV in.  We got his lab results back and did not see anything abnormal about his counts.  We suspect it may be meningitis.  We were feeding him Pediasure and Pedialyte through his feeding tube every hour alternating between the two.  He was very irritable and fussy for most of the day.  His father came to the house to visit him today.  That was surprising to us because he did not seem to care much about him when they brought him here.  Dorothy explained that she felt there was a very small chance of survival for him.  She told the father that she would prefer he take him to a hospital as he is so difficult to care for and so sick.  It is a full time job taking care of him and we have 32 other children to care for as well.  Plus, we are not equipped to handle his medical needs for much more than a few days.  The father told us that he will come back early tomorrow morning to take him to a hospital.  We are not not expecting the father to return, but we are hoping that we are wrong.

The twin girls are doing really well.  Francesca pulled her feeding tube out twice now.  So, we just left it out and she has been improving steadily at taking a bottle.  She still does not cry to be fed so we have to monitor it closely.  We have been keeping separate charts for each girl to keep track of bowel movements, temperature, and eating schedule.  We are VERY please at their progress.

As far as all the other children go, we have some type of respiratory illness going around.  I think close to ten of our kids have been running fevers today.  My day seems like it has been a constant stream of feeding babies, taking temperatures, and giving out Tylenol.  Dorothy and I talked about wanting to find an area to be the "sick ward".  It would help us to monitor the kids better.  Unfortunately, we are already so full that there is no space left.  The living room and Dorothy's bedroom have been our "hospital" for the babies and Jude.  Mom, Dorothy, and I have all been pretty exhausted.

Mom is flying back to PA tomorrow afternoon.  It will be interesting for Dorothy and I to try and juggle everything with just the two of us again.  Mom has been such a help the past week and a half.  We have been trying to talk her into extending her stay, but it has not worked, ha!

Thank you all for your wonderful prayers!

Baby Frances sound asleep.  She only weighs 5 pounds.

Can you tell was a little tired?

Mom spent hours holding Jude, taking care of him, and trying to sooth him.

The ENORMOUS spider that mom found on the wall right outside of my bedroom door.  I won't lie..she was pretty freaked out by it  :)

I was very glad to see that this was OUTSIDE of my bedroom door.  Yuck yuck yuck!