Alison Comes Home

When Alison came home it was an adjustment for everyone, but one that we gladly made. I had to organize things so as to have all of the things needed to care for her, right where I could get to them easily. I also needed to make a medication chart and stick with it. I had to organize my time as to be able to spend time with the other children and my husband. I didn't want the children to resent Alison or have our family fall apart due to the extra stress and strain. This was a good lesson to me in organization and time management.

After Alison's surgery, she did well for a about a month before landing in the hospital again. She had an elevated temperature so she ended up in the hospital for a couple of weeks because of a minor infection and as a preventative measure. We were able to take care of that quite quickly and somewhat painlessly. I learned how to give her injections so that we could take her home sooner. When she got home she seemed happy to be home. We continued to take her to the doctor bi-weekly to keep close track of her condition and get a jump on any problems that were beginning. Because of the close track of her condition that we kept, she had another one week stay a couple of weeks later. We were able to take care of the infection a little quicker so that she could come home with the family. It was so much easier on everyone when she was at home.

One of the things that the doctor said was imperative for Alison was to gain more weight. She needed to be stronger to fight the infections. Because of this I started feeding her some solid food, such as rice cereal and fruits. Because of medications that she needed to have, she didn't tolerate food as well as we would have liked. I had to be very careful the way that I fed her solids. If I got too much in a bite or before she was ready, she would throw everything up. When I fed her solids, it took a long time to get any thing down her. We did find that she enjoyed eating popsicles. She would stick her tongue out to lick the popsicle...it was fun to watch her and see her enjoy something. I continued to breast feed her, in fact her main food was breast milk. She generally had no problems with breast milk and she loved to suckle. I am also glad that I spent the time to hold her and let her suckle. Those are precious memories. That was really her favorite activity too.

At one of her check-ups we found that her electrolytes were extremely low and that she had a vitamin K deficiency, simply because she threw up so much. We also found that she had developed thrush in her mouth. These problems were easy to remedy. We were able to add the vitamin K to her regiment of medicines, as well as the medication to take care of the thrush. In spite of all this, Alison seemed to be growing and developing, even though she was slightly behind where she would have been if she weren't sick. She had moments where she was content and happy, and these precious and rare respites were a joy to us all.

It was during this time when Alison was home and she was happier that I especially tried to involve the other children. Whenever I had disposable diapers, I let them help me change her diaper. They would help by handing me things as I needed them. Most importantly I would let them help me hold her when she was feeling happy. One time our other little girl, who was three years old at the time, was holding her while sitting in the rocking chair. She was singing to Alison while rocking and looking out the sliding glass door, and then said " I sing so sweetly that the birdies stop to listen." Fortunately I turned on the tape recorder and have that on tape. I asked my oldest boy not too long ago what he remembers about Alison. He was five at the time of her birth. He said he remembers going to the hospital and playing in the play room. He remembers the Christmas that she came home. He said he also remembers holding her and helping to change her diapers. He remembers her crying and also the color of her skin. I'm glad that I gave my children the chance to have good memories of their sister.