Continuing to Improve

Today we had a visit from grandma and grandpa and Stian. It had been a week since Jeni had seen him. I went up to Battle Ground on Thursday, so I had seen him more recently. Stian has been keeping grandma and grandpa busy. We're very glad they are able to stay with him while we spend all this time in Indianapolis. I know it's a lot of work for them to keep track of an active three and a half year old, but it sure is appreciated.

We went to a park in Carmel, IN, which is near here. The park had a large man-made hill with huge stones leading up one face of it. This reminded Jeni and me of Avebury in England. What is it about large rocks that draws one in? There was also a playground and water area where people about Stian's age could splash and cool off in the warm weather. This was a surprisingly nice little park. We took a million pictures and I'm just going to go ahead and post a bunch below because the day was full of fun and sunshine.

Later in the afternoon, after Pam, Don and Stian had headed back north, and we got back over to the hospital, Silje had been making further steps in her progress. They increased her food volume again, we were able to do more bottle feeding and Jeni was able to nurse her; albeit after pumping off most of her supply--we don't want to waterboard our little one! Moreover, they removed the last needle from her little body when they took out her IV line. She has now only a lead to check heart and blood oxygen, and the feeding tube through her nose. She can wear her little outfit with both arms in the sleeves!

We still don't know how long we have to go, but if she continues to eat well, and the physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) folks say she's doing well, I don't imagine it will be that much longer. PT and OT don't work weekends and holidays, so we won't get a visit from them until Tuesday. In the meantime, we can continue to work on eating--and, of course, cuddling. We have spent hours with Silje in our arms and it has been great.