Barb, I'd be happy to hand on a Groovy Girl to Grace.

Excellent! Gotcha on the list, Kat!

This isn't normal parenting stuff and = scary to me. I am not responsible enough or adept enough to be in charge of this stuff.

Yeah, it's scary, but you already do a metric assload of stuff that to me, as a parent, would be scary and you do it well. I figure you'll get this down too.

And Kat, could you zip me your mailing addy again? I can't find it right now.

I'm back at the office.

Got home - dug through my purse.

No house keys.

Dumped out my purse.

No house keys.

Walked back to the office. . . I left my housekeys in the storage closet.

Now I'm just going to recover a bit from the walk before heading back home.

Annoying.

Lots of people have been like, "oh are you doing the training so you can take Grace home?" Um. Not yet, no.

Our plan is like a year plan, maybe. She's been off the vent for 3 weeks, now. I'd like the being off the vent to stick and I'd like to make it through the next flu season with the option of getting her back on the vent if she needs it. And in terms of respiratory stuff, I'd like her not to need the supplemental oxygen she's getting and I'd also like for her to have worked out the Speaking Valve.

And I'd like her feeds to not be spread out over 3 hours (as they currently are). In fact, if we could get her to take a 15 minute bolus, then she might be ready to come home.

The vent was huge. But she's got a long way to go.

How about David Tennant, John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd

I HAVE to chuck one of them. Okay.

F (the ever living shit out of) John Barrowman, C- David Tennant (sorry, boo! I love you, just not as much as the others) M- Gareth David Lloyd.

Explain a 15-minute bolus, Kat?

And I heartily concur with Barb -- you'll get all this stuff down. But you're smart to wait a bit and make sure you're doing it at the right time.

Up until now, Grace has gotten 150 mL of formula dumped into her tummy over 3 hours, with an hour off. So she's been hooked to a pump to regulate that. We're working towards 150 mL over two hours now. And then we'll work on 150mL over an hour.

The goal is to gradually increase her stomach capacity so that she can be fed 150 mLs or whatever in 15 minutes rather than slowly over the course of hours because it will be another machine that she can spend more time disconnected from.

There's a lot of pressure to go home now, from all quarters. If I had a buck for everytime I've answered, "Is she coming home soon?" I could pay for one day of her care.

But we need her to be as stable as possible and as least intensive as possible and we want to make sure that we know we can handle the care. Plus we need time to get the system rolling for special ed services, in home nursing, respite care and everything else that has to come in place. If we wait to bring her home after she is 3, then the social worker will have to help us with the school stuff we'll need.

Also, I'd rather bring her home when we are off for summer and when there are fewer infections running around.

Poor Johnny-boo-- all exhausted

because I'd also be F-ing the ever-livin' life out of him, but I'd C Gareth (Sorry honey!) and M David.

Barb, if there's anything left of him after I'm done, you're welcome to it. I'll try to keep him hydrated.