Day 57

Claire took her first bite of Ranch tonight! That's a big deal for this princess. For those of you who don't know, Claire doesn't eat anything by mouth (except Ranch now, I guess). She nursed until she was 10 months old and since then she only takes in water by mouth. The doctors have said that 99.9% of babies who have kidney failure stop eating. For a lot of different reasons I'm not going to go into, Claire also fell into that category. All the nutrition she needs goes through her G-Tube (gastronomy tube). We feed her about every half hour that shes awake and then while she's sleeping (nap and night time) she gets formula that runs into her on a feeding pump.

We always give her some of what we are eating just so she's familiar with food and feels included. Tonight she wanted in on the carrots and ranch we were all enjoying. And she was serious about it!! She definitely got a few good swallows in of Ranch. Yumm. We are happy with whatever mouth action she'll give!! Maybe next time we'll try some pureed pears or beans instead. But yeah for Ranch tonight!


Here's what the kids did for the hour while Claire got her antibiotics. It sure makes an already long 3 hour day even longer with extra antibiotics time. But at least we got a little change of scenery on the floor for the fourth hour. Good news is we made it home by 2:00 today and didn't have to go back later. They also took blood cultures this morning and we are praying the results come back negative. That would mean the antibiotics are doing their job and getting rid of her infection. We'll get the results of that tomorrow. As of now, they are planning on treating the infection for 2 weeks with antibiotics. And as far as I've heard from anyone, transplant would NOT be delayed because of her infection. If one came up, sounds like they would still go for it! Claire hasn't had any other troubles with the infection other than that first night when it was coming on. Since then (with help from the miracle antibiotics they've got her on) she feels GREAT!

"I'm on the phone right now. Here Mom, you change her."