Beanie's Blog: Strength and Beauty

I have been horrible about keeping up with our progress! This week my mom is here and I've been doing all the preparation that most pregnant women have been doing for the past 20 weeks. With just 4.5 weeks until my due date I finally pulled out the baby clothes, washed them and cleared out two of Selene's dresser drawers for them. With 2 bedrooms between the three girls but not wanting to rock the sleep boat (since it's already tossing in the waves as it is), we are leaving the bedrooms as is for now. The baby will sleep next to me for the first few months anyway, we'll figure out our next move after that.

As far as Selene, I can't even believe the progress that she is making. At her last appointment we found out that her engraftment is at 90%. Dr. Olson was beaming. Her ANC was 2460, higher than she's ever had even on Neupogen. All of her other numbers are up as well, including her platelets. We've stopped all medicine except her vitamin D (now super easy to give) and then an antibiotic which will be given twice a day on Monday and Tuesday and that's it. I think we have a year of that but it's a huge difference from what we came home

Due to her increasing health it also means her broviac will be removed this coming Thursday. I'm a little bummed that our easy blood draws are now going to mean weekly sticks, but I'm thrilled that her chest will be given the chance to heal and that we won't have to flush tubies and worry about the bandage peeling off, which seems to always happen on Monday when we have to make it one more day.

My brother was in Philly for business and was able to come visit and then join Dan and I out for dinner. It was so wonderful to see him! The girls love playing with Uncle John and we always end up with some gorgeous photos! He is so generous to share his amazing talent with us!

Since it's been too long, here's tons of pictures of the last two weeks!