The "Five O's" Grows!

Ruby lost 5 ounces again but they still let us go; not that I was going to stay anyways, but it's nice to not have to leave against medical advice. I was very grateful that my mom came down to keep us company as the discharge takes forever! She helped feed and play with Ruby so I could pack up last minute items and get discharge information. I was also grateful for her help while I stopped at the pharmacy and with loading up all our stuff. I sent a lot home with Steve last night but somehow there still was a lot! Ruby waved at the nurses as we were leaving and waved at everyone in the skywalk as we left. It was pretty funny. We could read her mind, "I'm outta here!!!" We are finally home and it feels sooooooooo good!! Ruby was very excited to have room to run and play! She did lots of exploring inside and out. And smiled more than I have ever seen. Our game plan for Ruby is to love her, feed her and watch her grow. We will have to continue to giv

Today was another good day. Ruby's job was to eat, drink and grow! She did just that and the scale worked in our favor today and she was a whopping 11 pounds 6 ounces. Yeah Ruby!!! We spent the day playing and for those that have met Ruby, she plays hard and probably burned off all the calories she ate! We had another wonderful visit from friends Carrie and Megan, Papa and Nana Olson and Steve. She wasn't as fun for Papa, Nana and Daddy's visit because she was tired. In rounds today, they said she could go home tomorrow if she continues to gain weight and drink. I told them she will and we WILL go home tomorrow. All the testing is done and we can work on growing at home. She will need to go home with the NG tube and I'm fine with that. Her goal is to drink 14 ounces of liquids/day and if she doesn't make it, I will need to supplement through the tube. Not too concerned about it. They are setting up home health to check on her and to have some

Wow! One week in a hospital and counting.....counting down the days!! Ruby has spent more time in a hospital than all 5 of us combined! When she was 10 months old she was in the hospital for 31 days all alone. That thought makes me sad. A lot of the things I know she has been through in her short 23 months of life can make someone sad, however it is all those things that have made our little Roo the beautiful, amazing, sweet, girl that she is. She is confident, funny, happy, content, curious, fascinated, busy, fast, strong and full of joy. She continues to amaze me everyday as I fall more and more in love. Today was a great day! It started off bright and early with lab draws. That was it for the yucky stuff! She got a bath finally now that the IV is out. We had a visit from the physical therapist and occupational therapist. Those visits are fun because they just play with her (so she thinks). They gave me some good suggestions for exercises but do recommend outpatient PT and OT

Oh sweet little Ruby. Another tough day. It started with being NPO (nothing to eat or drink) since midnight again. They put an NG tube (feeding tube in through the nose) in for her to be able to do the  upper GI test because she has not been drinking and they need her to drink for the test. Well, she was so hungry by 11am that she drank for the radiologist and he didn't use the tube at all! After the GI test we had enough time to get a little lunch in before heading to audiology. I think her hearing is fine but it is part of the genetic workup. She did not want to play with the audiologists today so we had to schedule an appointment as an outpatient. Ruby and I had another special visitor today. My friend Megan Ramspott came and brought me dinner and dessert!! Yum!! Ruby was very playful with her since she didn't have any needles or a stethoscope! The GI doctors came in to tell me that Ruby does not have anything structurally wrong with her esophagus, stomach an

Today was another great day! Ruby and I were blessed to have several visitors so the day went nice and quick. First grandma and grandpa Flynn came again. When Ruby saw them at the door she stood up and shook with excitement! Then Steve and Elliana, Aunt Becky, friends Jen and Emily Nowak and my co-worker/friend Jess. They are all so sweet and shower Ruby with gifts and me with chocolate!! She caught up on her sleep too and took two naps-one with her older sister, Elliana. Rounds were similar to yesterday except for me politely suggesting a full GI workup. I really would like to get to the bottom of these episodes and why she is not gaining weight. They informed me that she will need to stay in the hospital until she starts gaining weight. She is currently 11 pounds (with the wrist splint on). That is the same weight as yesterday. They capped the IV late morning and want to see if she can keep the weight on without help from the fluids. A capped IV=happy girl and mom

Ruby had a much better day today. She had labs drawn this am but that was it!! Rounds did not give me any more information. Apparently not much is done around the hospital on the weekends unless it's an emergency. I didn't mind the break and I'm certain Ruby didn't either. She had special visitors again. Grandma and Grandpa Flynn came and gave Ruby her first sucker. (That is my dad's goal with all the kids). She loved it! She had sticky grape sucker saliva all over her face and body, even in her eye! She did not mind though. Grandpa put Ruby to sleep and rocked her for over an hour (very tough job for a grandpa to nap with his grand baby.) She ate lunch and threw up two times again. It's not much but enough for me to remind the doctors the main reason we are here is to figure out her GI issues. It seems they are so fascinated by her size and what she can do that the focus has been on genetic testing and not GI. After lunch she had more special

Ruby slept great last night. She sleeps on the pull out bed with me because the crib is where they do the lab work and she is no way going to rest there. Several times throughout the night I could feel her reach for me without a peep just to make sure I'm still there, and then her tiny body would relax again. She woke up with smiles on her face and played a little in bed with me. As soon as she turned around and saw the rest of the room and where she was she grabbed on tight and just laid on me. No more smiles after that. I had to keep her very busy to distract her from wanting to eat as she cannot eat before her testing today. Luckily for us they came to get her early to do the MRI and echo (heart test) so we didn't have to wait until 11 without food. We went to imaging and they were concerned because her blood pressure was high and her blood sugars were low. They put an IV in and ended up giving her sugar to bring her levels up before they sedated her. I cannot st

Today was quite a challenging day. They woke Ruby at midnight, 4am, 5am, 6am and then we were up for the day. She probably figured as soon as I fall asleep they will wake me again anyways. The medical staff did rounds at 9am which means 15-18 doctors and students came into her room to discuss her. They are all fascinated by her and puzzled. I want to know why she's loosing weight when we are feeding her more and exactly what foods her body can tolerate. The summary of the rounds was they were not as concerned about her GI system as they were why is she so small. So genetics was consulted. The speech therapist had lunch with her and trailed milk (the one thing we were told not to give her-but what a better place to trial these things). She did not like it at all and whenever we would try to sneak it in or on her spoon with the mashed potatoes, she would refuse it. She is a pretty smart little cookie! Speaking of cookie, she ate a chocolate chip cookie today too. Probably the

Ruby had her first pediatrician appointment today and the look on the physician's face when she walked in the room and saw Ruby was pretty funny. She could not believe how small she is. We are getting use to that response because we get it everywhere we go. Fortunately most people throw in a "She is so adorable" right after commenting on her size. Her pediatrician was very concerned about her size and weight and especially since she has lost nearly 2 pounds since we got her. That was hard to understand as she has been eating so much more since we've gotten her. She is now down to 10 pounds 4 ounces. Quite discouraging for us as parents. We thought American food would fatten her up. Not the case. She told me she wants her admitted to Children's Hospital today for a complete work up; labs, GI, therapies, etc. and would probably get a feeding tube tonight. She explained to me that when a body is not getting nutrition and all of a sudden they get nutrition, the

We made it home safely!! Ruby was a champion traveler! She did great on the 14 hour flight and slept three times. The flight attendants stopped to talk with her nearly every time they walked by. They also spoiled Audrey with lots of treats since it was her birthday. Ruby had a busy weekend and was able to meet several family members who could not wait to love on her. She enjoyed meeting everyone but her true passion seemed to be exploring and figuring out her new toys. It didn't take her long to figure out how to empty the toy bin and get in it. That leads to rides!! We continue to struggle with the jet lag. The first night Ruby was wide awake and ready to play at 1:30am. We played until 4:30 before she was ready for a nap. The second night she slept until 4:30am and today she is still sleeping (5:30am) yeah!! Steve and I on the other hand continue to be confused with night and day. Every day is getting slightly better for us and hopefully by mid week we will be back on trac

Today was a big day! Ruby gave us kisses for the first time! At first we didn't think she understood what kisses were but now we think she knew all along; she was just not sure she wanted to share them with us. We have been kissing her like crazy since we received her and now she is returning the love. We had another big travel day today. We took a van ride to Hong Kong (3 1/2 hours). They do not have car seats in this country so Ruby is a lapper everywhere we go. It's not much of a problem for shorter trips but when she gets tired she gets very squirrelly which makes it somewhat challenging to get her to sleep in a vehicle. She finally gave in and fell asleep in my arms for an hour of the trip. Of course Steve and I could not fall asleep due to the crazy driving and honking, but the other three children took naps too. Hong Kong is a beautiful city-from what we could see. We chose to stay at the hotel connected to the airport for convenience purposes with 4 child

Happy Independence Day!!!! We certainly missed the USA today! No fireworks, no parades, no celebrations. We were going to take a nice family photo in our 4th of July attire but Ruby's outfit was WAY too big! Today was a free day. We spent most of the day taking adventures and seeing more of this amazing city. The girls and I did a little shopping while the boys and Ruby took in several more games of ping pong at the local park. This evening our guide organized a river cruise. It was beautiful! Most of the group went and we had a wonderful time. The boat was very nice and we could go to the upper deck to see the sites. It amazes me how many high-rise apartments there are in this city. We spent a few hours on the boat and we were able to socialize with the other families some more. Tomorrow we pack up and take a 3-4 hour van ride to Hong Kong for the night. More adventure awaits.......

Our day started out with going to a 6 story flea market. Everything in China is in stories because there are so many building they have to build upwards! It was an interesting shopping trip and our guide only gave us 2 hours so we had to shop fast! We found a few items we were looking for and a few more we didn't need! In the afternoon Steve and Jack went to a park to play ping pong with some of the locals. For any of you that have played Jack in ping pong, you know that he is pretty good. Today, he was humbled. It is true that the Chinese are good at ping pong! We went on an adventure for dinner. One of the families heard of a Mexican restaurant and many of us were excited to have something besides fried rice and noodles. We took a taxi which is always interesting when you don't speak the same language-especially when the cab driver doesn't know where he's going! We finally made it to the restaurant and ate all you can eat tacos and wow were they delicious!!

Today we had our appointment at the US Consulate. Yeah! Ruby Rebekah Anmeng Olson is now an American citizen!! It was our last paperwork appointment and now we can stop carrying all the paperwork we had to bring. Ruby played well with several of the other children waiting with their parents for their number to be called. Jack, Elliana and Audrey are really enjoying their bonding time with their new sister. They love to play with her and make her laugh. The kids have spent a lot of their time with other families' children. They swim, play games, get food and hang out together. It has been great that they made such wonderful friends. All the families we are with are wonderful. We will definitely be keeping in touch with them and hopefully have reunions from time to time. Ruby's personality is really shining more and more everyday as she becomes more comfortable with us. She is not hesitant to play or to take toys away from bigger kids...and they are ALL bigger than h