The last few days have been pretty rough for Lenah. She has has a lot of nasal congestion and coughing. I have been unable to leave her by herself as she has coughing episodes where I have to use a suction machine to catch the secretions because she chokes otherwise. Saturday was a bit better than Friday and today seems better than yesterday. I am hoping that Friday was the climax of the episode and she will continue to get better. I am not sure if this has been the result of a cold or if it is heart related. She also seems as though her ribs are very sore. I imagine they must be after so much coughing. Poor baby. Because she is so young there is nothing in the way of cold medication that I can give her to relieve congestion and cough. I put a bit of mentholated rub on her chest and used saline spray for her nose and that seemed to help a bit. Last night was especially difficult because she would only sleep if being held. I had to wake James in the middle of the night to take over as I was exhausted and afraid I might drop her or something. Then, at five am her pain medicine pump ran out even though it said it had 5 doses left. I had to change the bag of medicine and reset the pump for the first time by myself. That was a bit of a challenge as I was bleary-eyed and foggy-brained. Thankfully, I managed to figure it out. Today I am trying to nap as Lenah does to get some rest. It is hard to do as the older children still need and want my attention as well. I am so grateful that Nana is here to make meals, mediate the children's squabbles, and all the other things that need to be done. James has to go back to Houston for a couple of days to take care of some things, but will be back on Tuesday or Wednesday and should be here through the new year.
I checked Lenah's heart rate earlier and it is a bit slower than her normal. It is normally over 100 while she is sleeping and between 120-140 wile awake. It was 89-99 while she was sleeping. I will check it again later to see if is staying consistently slower. Her oxygenation is staying in her good range with her on 1 liter of oxygen.
Edward (Lenah's oldest brother) turned 12 on Wednesday. I am so thankful that the Lord has allowed Lenah to stay with us through all of the children's birthdays this year. It may seem silly, but I found myself kind of holding my breath on Wednesday and praying that Edward's birthday would not be "the day".
As a family, we do not celebrate Christmas. We made the decision after research and prayer many years ago and determined that it was not a holiday that we would keep as others do. We make no judgements against anyone else's celebration- we just do not keep observance of Christmas ourselves. After learning some of the origins of Christmas and in reading Romans 14 , we felt that we were free from keeping Christmas. It has been liberating to not feel the pressure of doing all the things that we used to feel were required this time of year. My birthday is on the 26th, and I have no concern about whether the Lord takes Lenah on my birthday. It will be no more difficult for me that day than any other day. The 26th will also be our 15th wedding anniversary. I had hoped that we could do something special for our aniversary this year, but I guess that will have to wait.
Thank you for checking on Lenah. And thank you for praying for all of us at this time.
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