Happy Birthday Rebekah

Rebekah turned 4 years old today. When she woke up, we had a present here for her. She didn't want to wait to open it and daddy had to get the camera quick. She seemed to enjoy playing with it. Sarah enjoyed playing with it too, but Rebekah didn't want Sarah to keep taking the letters out of it (Rebekah kept putting them back in - she is a "things need to be in their place" kind of girl). We will celebrate with family on Sunday.

Then we were off to one of Scott's client's for a Christmas party and then to the doctor. Sarah needed to have a regular physical, and I figured that it would be ok for Rebekah to go with us (on her birthday) and see her sister have a doctor's appointment when Rebekah didn't have to get poked and prodded. A "mini" birthday present - sister's appointment and shots and Rebekah gets to watch.

Sorry for no updates yesterday. It has been a busy couple of days and I've taken some opportunities to just rest.

Ginger was here from Tuesday afternoon until we left the house this morning. She was a great help - watching the girls, fixing meals, feeding Sarah, keeping the dishes washed, sleeping in Rebekah's room and caring for her and Sarah during the night, etc... Truly a blessing. I was able to sit and do nothing for part of the time without fretting over dishes and everything else that needed done. I even got a little bit of a chance to work on my crochet project, which I haven't done at home in a long time. Mom and Dad were able to get two pretty good nights of sleep, too, which was awesome.

Rebekah's mouth seems to be healing. She is using more words and taking some of her medications in her mouth, again. She hasn't been needing quite as much of the morphine for her pain. She needed the white blood cells so that her mouth could heal and now that they have improved her mouth is healing.

Rebekah has been sleeping better and didn't really wake Ginger up much, which is good. Going to bed, on the other hand continues to be a struggle. Rebekah will ask to go night night between 7 and 8 and I'll put her down. For the next 3 or 4 hours, she will fuss, cry and otherwise want attention. She will ask to be all done with night night, but without any success. She plays all of the "delay sleep" games - I'm thirsty, I need a change, I want music, I want a story, I need owie medicine, etc... I've been pretty patient with her, but it is getting pretty old. I can't really leave her alone when she is doing that, because she can get herself into trouble with her feeding tube which is always connected at bedtime.

She continues to have diarrhea and a pretty nasty rash. She does not like being changed right now and so she won't tell me when she needs a change.

We took Rebekah to Clinic yesterday for counts and a quick check up. Her counts were good and she didn't need any transfusions.

We heard from the eye doctor who is planning to try to open Rebekah's tear duct next Monday evening while we are in the hospital. We hope that he is successful and that Rebekah's eye will feel better.