Happy Late V-Day

Hi all,
How funny is it that we had a cardiologist appointment on Valentine's Day? We thought it was fun! Reagan got to come with Ellie and I this time. It sure is fun to see how different the doctors act when she's with us. She even managed to get through the echocardiogram and appointment with great behavior and no tantrums (2 hours!)!! Of course, she was covered in stickers...my periodic reward to ensure good behavior. Whatever works, right? Anyway, Ellie was pretty ticked off about the echo and this was the worst she ever handled it. We got through it though. The leaking around her patches has healed. She does still have leaking in both valves (the one that they made two valves out of) but it is minor. The one that has more leaking is on the low pressure side so this is a good thing. It is something that will need to be watched and checked again in 6 months. He did decide to take her off her lasix!! One less medicine, hooray! When her cardiologist heard about her ordeal in December he said he was not surprised that her heart was fine through it all. He just said, "that means they did a good job repairing it!" And boy are we glad!
Earlier this week we had a pediatrician appointment. Ellie weighed a whopping 16 lbs 6 ozs!! Can you believe we have been in the 15 lb range since August? It is so nice that she is gaining. We are still doing oral feeds, but she is pretty much staying on continuous j-tube feeds. Nutrition and Dave and I really wanted to see her get some weight on. As for oral feeds, she doesn't have an aversion to eating, but she is just not as motivated to eat as she was before the whole incident. We are having some luck with thickened yogurt. She seems to like it anyway.
Her staph infection is looking much better, but wouldn't it figure that I just got a call that the swab they took for VRE earlier this week came back positive (we had 2 negatives in a row). It will be up to Dr. Ostlie to decide what he what's to do. I'm guessing we'll probably be leaving it alone. Why it came back positive after 2 negatives is beyond me. Our pediatrician wasn't sure either.
Tonight I was rocking in the chair with all 3 girls (Ellie in the middle)....don't ask me how we all fit. Ellie seemed to be really fascinated with Sydney and Reagan. Sometimes she would look up at Sydney and grab her hand or hold her leg and sometimes she would grab Reagan's hand or the pen that she was holding. I got to tell you, it is so funny to hear Reagan tattling on Ellie. "Mommy, Ellie's taking my pen!" Those girls really motivate Ellie. Two weeks ago she signed "more" because the girls were playing and kept running in and out of the room screaming. I thought it was coincidence the first time, but then I had the girls come in and leave the room 2 more times and each time she signed. She signed it again last weekend when I was playing with her. It is just not on a consistent basis yet. Oh, and she started rolling over again this week! So, slowly we are making progress.