Lessons Lily learned this week

Receipts don't taste like food at the restaurant they are from

Laundry baskets, not just for laundry

The red-eye reduction flash does hurt my eyes

Daddy's tongue is bigger than mine

I love swimming

Our happy girl!

Lily is as happy as ever. She is eating NON STOP. Really. We think she is trying to catch up. She did lose about 3 pounds so she needs to gain some weight. I had her in shorts today and she now has chicken legs. :-( Her baby fat had left momentarily. Her follow-up appointment was good. No need to worry anymore! Yeah! We are still thanking God for bringing her back to health. That was NO fun for mom and dad. We are both relieved it is over.

Below are some pictures from the hospital. The first few are when she was still pretty sick... the others were when she was feeling better.
Thank you again for your prayers! God is good!!

Lily and Mama in the ER after Lily got her IV.
I couldn't smile for the picture. :-(

Lily and Daddy resting in her room.

Lily in her "monkey cage" sleeping.

Our sweet baby trying to get better.

Don't ya love the onesie they put on her.
Are they afraid we would want to take it home?

Lily and Mama trying to pass some time with a wagon walk. Lily had to ride in it cuz she was in isolation and they didn't want her to touch anything. Good thing she loved it.

Our sweet one... almost ready to go home.

Home Sweet Home

We just got home a few minutes ago. It feels SO good. Lily's last test came back good and she is back to her cute self this afternoon. We have a follow-up appointment on Friday with her doctor.
This morning I went out in the waiting room just to get out for a little bit while Lily slept. I sat in a chair and and my heart just hurt... for the other moms and dads up there. There were two sets of parents both grieving heavily. Across the hall from where Lily was is the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. This is where both of these couples little ones were. I overheard one of the moms say she only had a few days left with her little one. The other just sat there staring at the ground, pale and exhausted. I wanted to cry... I did get all teary and decided I had better get out of there. I felt out of place. We all had the purple bands around our wrists, which meant we were either a mom or a dad. But I was the lucky - no blessed beyond belief - one with a little girl on the "good" side of the unit. I went back to the room and told John how sad I felt... and together we talked about how thankful we were to not to be in their shoes. I prayed for those moms and dads and I will continue to think of them as they fight for life for their little ones. If you think of it, pray for them too. The little 6 month old baby boy in the room next to Lily was in bad shape too and most of the time, had no one there with him except the nurses. So, before we left, we gave the nurse one of Lily's Praise Baby DVD's and asked if the nurse would play it for him when he was alone. She went right in and put it in for him. That little boy has songs about Jesus and how much Jesus loves him playing as I type... that makes me smile. Pray for the caregivers - nurses and doctors - I can't imagine having that job. All of the Lily's medical team were amazing. They loved her and did what they could to make her comfortable and happy. We thank God for them. We also had a doctor who we felt, put herself in our shoes... which was amazing as well. God took care of us and He certainly provided great care for Lily. So, kudos to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital!
We are truly thankful for your prayers. We need to get Lily to drink and eat some more tonight so pray for that. :-) She needs to get used to her sippy cup again and not drinking through a syringe. I think she kind of enjoyed that. I brought one home just in case. :-)
Lily is asking to go outside and it is a beautiful day so I think we'll go for a "wa" (walk) to get her some fresh air.
We appreciate you keeping informed and praying for our sweet girl. We will update later with how the rest of her night went and some pic's from the hospital.

Yucky Tests & Yami Yogurt

Good morning... it is good!
Lily had a good night of sleep even though her mama coughed all night long. :-( We woke up together with the transport nurse ready to take Lily to her next test. She sat up in her monkey cage this morning and SMILED! She then asked for "Da Da" and wanted "Ou" (out) Another answer to prayer from a few days ago. We went down for her test - upper gi. This was NOT FUN. They had to strap Lily down from head to toe, with her arms above her head. Then, turning her around with a crank, gave her a bottle full of barium. Lily screemed and we cried together. It has taken her a bit to calm down... but we are back in our room now waiting for the results.
However, as I write this, Lily is walking around her room taking bites of Yami Yogurt and is double fisted with graham crackers. She is also copying everything her Daddy is saying. She has also drank some apple juice. YEAH LILY! We have her Praise Baby DVD playing and she is even dancing. We ask her to praise Jesus, she puts her hands in the air and says, "Pra Gus"
Our hearts are SO happy this morning. And we are praising Him for seeing us through. We have our baby girl back! We are now just waiting for the results to come back and the doctor to see her again. We are hopeful that we will be heading home this afternoon.
Please continue to pray for her and pray she keeps eating and drinking... we will update this afternoon.
We thank God for you...
and all your prayers.
Nichole

Ultrasound Results

The doctor came in and gave us the results... good ultrasound, no real concerns. They did see a lot of air in her bowels, which could be causing her some trouble. The doctor has ordered an upper gi scan for tomorrow morning. They will continue down the testing phases until they find what is wrong OR she gets better. It still could be that the viral infection has her down and she just needs to get IV fluids until it passes. She was poked for blood 4 times today and by the last time, she was done. It was tough on her and tough on us. I would hold her and John would just talk her through. So sad! I think I cried as much as she did! On a VERY positive note, God answered our prayers. We had some friends here tonight for a little bit. Lily had an hour tonight of being our happy girl again. She wanted down and walked around the room, destroyed a box of tissues and interacted with us playfully. It did our hearts SO MUCH GOOD. This has been my prayer for the last five days... to just see her walk around and be playful. So, our prayer tonight is that she will wake up tomorrow and be "Ah Dun" (all done as she says) and we can go home and see her through the rest of her illness. Or at the least, that we could get off isolation and bring her out of the monkey cage :-) and go for a "Waaa" (walk as she says). We also need her to eat and drink again. So, be praying she will be hungry after her scan. We will update you after the next test is done. Thank you for your prayers - we appreciate you! Goodnight.

Tuesday afternoon

The doctor came in and took a look at Lily. She was initially concerned about her low platelets and wacked out blood sugar levels. So, she told us the possibilities... which were a few super huge, long worded type syndromes. She had more blood work done and both her platelets and blood sugar came back normal. PTL. No need to try to figure out what 2 of those huge words even mean. So, there is still concern because Lily is not perking up, even after 24 hours of being on IV fluids. Later this afternoon she will have an ultrasound on her belly so they can rule out a few more things... and then we go from there.
Keep praying.
I have my mama brag book that I am showing her nurses and doctors. I tell them, "See, this is my baby girl... this is what she looks like normally." They smile and tell us she is beautiful. And they see that the little girl in the gorilla cage is sick indeed.
We love you - Keep praying!
We'll update after the ultrasound.

Pray for Lily

Hello friends & family,
I have a few minutes this morning to fill you in on our little one.
Last Thursday Lily started to get sick. She began not eating and drinking, and not being her cute little self. And had lots of yucky diapers. Friday night was rough with two trips to the doctor. She had 3 bouts of screeming in "pain" and we couldn't get her to stop crying. The doctor said she probably had a tummy bug and sent us home. Saturday morning she had a fever of 102.5. She spent most of the day crying, sleeping and laying on us for comfort. She would have fevers off and on. She was still refusing food and drink...
So we took her to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital ER in hopes of fixing our cute girl. They began assessing her for dehydration and urinary tract infection. She seemed to be okay still... even though she hadn't had more than a few bites and a few drinks every day since Friday. It was late so they sent us home and told us to return Sunday if she still refused to drink. At this point, Lily had already lost 3 pounds.
Sunday she was off and on all day. She began the day with a fever but with the help of motrin we were able to get it down. She basically laid on a blanket in the living room all day. We hadn't seen her play with her toys since Thursday. We began to really miss our little girl.
After talking with Dr. Grubb off and on all weekend, we made the call to take her back to Mary Bridge Monday afternoon. We began wondering if they were missing something... Lily just wasn't improving and seemed to be getting more and more lifeless.
We were in the Mary Bridge ER all day and into the evening. They started Lily on an IV to re-hydrate her since it had been almost two days without a wet diaper. She needed it! They really thought she would perk up after the IV ran for a few hours... but she didn't. She just wanted to lay on us or was content to lay on the bed in the ER. This was tough on us. I really began to wonder if we were gonna see her improve... Lily still would not eat or drink.. not even a popcycle!
So they admitted her into the hospital and after running varios tests, told us they believe she has the Rotovirus. It is a common virus, not dangerous, but makes young ones very sick I guess. I haven't had time yet to "google" it but I remember my friend Katie talking to me about it the other day when I was trying to figure out what could be wrong.
I sent John home last night to get a good night of sleep. They came in every few hours to check on Lil and I... poked her a few times and made her mad at 5 am... silly nurses.
So, here we are... still at Mary Bridge with our baby girl in a monkey cage in isolation. :-) It really does look like a monkey cage. She is resting and is still getting IV fluids. It is so hard to watch her be so sick. I am beginning to wonder if we should have more kids... ha ha. My heart hurts for her and I would love to take her place. The other little ones around Lily seem to be much sicker so we are thankful that this is nothing serious and we hope to have our little girl back soon.
On a happy note, we were able to get her to take a few drinks of pedialite and she did eat a little banana and a few cheerios this morning. This afernoon she ate 10 bites of yogurt! Yeah!!! So, we will wait for the doctor to come this afternoon and see what she thinks.
Please pray for her. And don't take your kids health for granted. I just want to chase Lily around the house again... and I want her to want to stand up in that monkey cage and ask to be picked up.
Thanks for your love and prayers.
Nichole

Lily talking

This is Lily saying some of here words and also falling into a pillow. Whenever there is a pillow or pile of laundry on the floor, she runs and falls into it. It was very cute as I edited the video, Lily "played along."

Memorial Day Activities

First time wearing pig tails

Picnic at Bradley Lake Park

Yay geocaching

Birthday fun

I recently turned 30 and had a great birthday up in Seattle. Here are some pics from the last few weeks.

Nichole and I at a Carenet Benefit Banquet

Me and Jimi at the EMP

Our new hobby, Geocaching

Lily eating apple sauce without untensils

Lily on my birthday looking out of Leah's apartment

Lily and daddy walking out to Sunday School

200th post

Today was the first day off for both Nichole and I in a long time. We went to the zoo and had a wonderful time. Here are some pics of the zoo and our cute child.

She is obsessed with laundry to the point of getting in the basket

We recently got Mario Kart Wii and have been playing a lot. Lily holds the extra wiimote and pretends to play.

Sitting in her big girl chair watching Praise Baby

This is after a day of wearing a pony tail

Cool shades dude

Self portrait at the zoo

Lily is ready to go home

Penguins

Spaghetti

This is Lily's first time eating spaghetti. She thoroughly enjoyed it. We weren't fast enough to catch her when she was finally finished and she threw the bowl on the floor. Yikes.

Hmm, this looks good

This feeding myself thing is tricky

Good to the last bite

No more pictures mama!

Our lil' Pickle

This is Lily waving. She also says hi. It is very cute. She is very friendly and will do this to total strangers at the grocery store.

For some reason when Lily was younger I called her Mrs. Picklesworth. I have funny nicknames for my family members. It has now been shortened to Pickle and she even responds to it. Her personality is starting to come out more and more each day. It also fun to see her imitate the things we do. She imitates me buy typing on the computer and Nichole by wiping everything down with a cloth, its great.

Lily sitting in her favorite chair with her favorite accessories.

Of course having Nichole as a mom means mac and cheese.

Having a child also helps with rearranging things and questioning if we really need all of the older church directories in that cupboard.

Lily learning to eat

Lily is growing so fast

We went to Red Robin and I guess I said that she couldn't have balloons from restaurants until she was 1. Here she is with her first balloon and tulips in bloom.

She still has three bottles throughout the day and they are a very special time between mommy and baby.

We just got back from shopping and she wanted to help sort and detag all of the clothes. She was excited as most of the goods were for her.

Of course she wants to do anything that mommy and daddy do. This is helping daddy edit a youth group video. "Sounds good dad."

One cool and one great event

While mom and dad were here, dad and I got to enjoy a private plane ride around Puget Sound. One of my youth staff members recently got his pilot's license and loves to fly any chance he gets. One of the two days we had sun while my parents were here, he happened to have a plane reserved and we happened to be able to go, much to Nichole's chagrin. Here are some pics.

This picture is from Nichole's awards luncheon on Tuesday. She won the Howard O. Scott Citizen-Soldier of the Year Award. She was chosen out of all soldiers in the Washington National Guard... Air, Army and Coast! The award is given to someone who demonstrates excellence in both their military and community involvements. Nichole was nominated by her unit Commander and group Commander! I am very proud of her and to see her at the luncheon with two colonels and two generals there because of her was very special. We had a great time.

Opa and Nana = my favorite things

These first two pictures are from Easter right before Opa and Nana got here.

Here is another photo essay from Lily Ann Gruber. Recently her Opa and Nana visited from Iowa. She was very happy to have them here and misses them tremendously now that they are gone. These are a few of the favorite things she did while Nana and Opa were here.

Sleep in funny positions

Sit on my Little Mermaid ball that Nana and Opa gave me, sit on anything really

Lick my Uncle Ben

Drink straight from the carton

Take baths and be clean

Try on Auntie Leah's slippers

Give my mother funny looks

Get presents and not wear any pants

Cuddle with Nana

Play with Opa