Life is Grand at the Hoskins' House!

The days are just flying by now that my family is all home together! Avery has been home two weeks now, and I am happy to say that he is doing well. His blood counts and virus quants are continuing to look great, and his tube feedings have been increased to their goal with NO vomiting since he has been home!! He is sleeping so much better also. Bryson is thrilled to have his bed buddy back home, and I find them most mornings cuddling or lying nearly on top of one another asleep. Miss Em is on the move constantly, and she and Avery are still figuring one another out. He's a little leery of her; I can't say I blame him, but a few times he has leaned against her, which is his way of giving hugs.

So now that we're back to the real world, this mommy is busy, busy, busy! I had forgotten what it was like to have a mobile little one. With Avery not going through some of the normal phases that babies go through, having Em do so is almost like doing it for the first time again, except now I have a couple other people to watch as well. That girl never stops! And the putting everything in her mouth, and I mean everything...is that normal?? I have laminate wood floors throughout my entire house except for the boys' room and my stairs. Em scavenges my wood floor for the slightest crumb, which shows up much easier on the dark wood, and whether it's thread, fuzz, or who-knows-what, she crams it in her mouth as quickly as she can. When I say her name and start toward her, she turns around as fast as she can and starts crawling with all the speed her little chubby legs can muster. She has discovered that in the bottom of a plastic potted tree I have in my home, there is plastic mulch that she can dig out. That has become a favorite spot of hers. Also, the carpet on my stairs makes potential edibles much more difficult to spot, so she runs her fingers through the carpet until something pops out. Then she grabs it and eats it as well. Her skills are rather impressive, but I have become a pro at digging things out of her mouth or making sure her passy is in place so that she doesn't put anything else in. I also swiffer my wood floors at least 3 or 4 times a day to avoid germs for Avery and temptations for Em and vacuum my bottom two stairs regularly. Bryson pretty much entertains babies all day and gets in and out of his little pool in our back yard. He has become so helpful these days! The keeping up with Avery's tube feeds, meds, diapers for two, plus my incredibly imaginative 5-year-old makes me feel a little like I've been running a marathon by the time my day ends. I'm reacquainting myself with cooking, and have gone from eating fast food constantly, to eating 3 meals a day at home since we really can't go out much. That adds to the activity and the messes, but I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

We started home therapies last week with Avery, so now he will be receiving Speech/Feeding therapy, OT, and PT through home care. One of the down sides to his long-term illness is that he lost some of his skills and muscle tone that we had worked so hard the previous years to develop. It's quite depressing when I start thinking about it, but I just try to stay positive. He no longer wants to stand and only does so for short periods of time with LOTS of support when he is forced. It's probably a result of the spinal fractures, ankle stress from the osteoporosis and weight gain, and just muscle atrophy from spending so much time lying in bed. He also, of course, no longer eats; thus, the g-tube. I'm really hoping and praying that we can see Avery start to regain some of his mobility that he was starting to achieve prior to transplant. We couldn't keep him in one place without him rolling or reaching. Now he just wants to sit indian-syle all day, and would be content to if we'd let him!

Nothing I've written today comes from a complaining heart. In fact, I'm so thankful that I can write about something besides sitting in a hospital room watching Avery receive treatments. Every morning I wake up trying to get a head start on mixing feeds and meds before the kiddos get up and every night I fall into bed exhausted beside my amazing husband, I am filled with gratitude for the busy normalcy of my day.

And with that, I really must go. My kids have slept later than usual this morning, but I have a therapist coming in a few minutes, and I'm going to have to wake Avery up for therapy. Oh joy! He's really gonna be grumpy!

~Bethany

Working on his standing!

My 3 rascals.  Yes, I have my hands full! :-)