We also enjoyed these little gems - my first foray in to 'from scratch" Red Velvet cupcakes.  Boy were they yummy!

Christmas was really magical this year.  This was the first year that Nate really "got" the whole Santa thing.  Just before 7 am, he sprung from his bed and wanted to go downstairs to see if Santa came.  It was so nice to have both kids here, happy and healthy.

Two babies tuckered out after having lots of fun!

I had asked the anesthesiologist to try to avoid intubating her if possible because I wanted to try to avoid irritating her airway.  He was able to do some sort of mask thing over her throat and thus avoiding the need to intubate - which was awesome.  Her bronchoscopy went well - Dr. Holinger said her airway looked the same or maybe just slightly better than the last bronch she had in May.  He was very surprised that still with only 25% of capacity of her airway that she hasn't had any respiratory problems.  Since she hasn't though - there is no need for surgery or anything at this point - thank God.  He did say that her airway is still very irritated from her reflux and he advised us to go see a gastroenterologist with the hopes that perhaps he would have a better strategy for treating her reflux.

Dr. Yoon, the ophthalmologist, was able to get in to the OR to do the refraction of Finley's eyes.  He took some pictures of her colobomas and gave me a copy and we learned that Finley needs glasses!  He is mailing her prescription and we will be going to pick out her new glasses soon!  She is going to look so cute with glasses!

Finally, the bad news of the day was that Finley's hearing has gotten worse in both ears.  Her right ear had previously only been a mild loss and it still fell within the range of being able to still hear "normal" speech sounds which is why they weren't sure that ear needed to be aided originally.  Bow she falls 20-30 decibels below that normal range. With hearing aids, doctors believe that hearing can be increased 30-40 db - so theoretically Finley's hearing in the right ear, once her hearing aids are adjusted, she be pretty much back in the normal range.  The left ear on the other hand also got worse - but unfortunately is now more toward the profound loss level and so even with her hearing aids, she likely won't be able to hear any of the normal speech sounds.  This generated alot of discussion last week with Finley's speech therapist and has us doing some additional follow up to see if Finley might qualify for a cochlear implant in her let ear.  While we did know that Finley's hearing could get progressively worse (due to a combo of things - the antibiotics she was on with her infections, her CHARGE Syndrome, and because of her heart surgery) we were holding out hope that it wouldn't.  Hope is by no means lost though - especially as long as we can pursue potential options with a cochlear implant. 

Our stay at the hospital last week did end with another bright spot as I was able to do something I have been wanting to do for a long time.  Anyone who is familiar with the Fullerton exit off the Kennedy knows that there are always homeless people at the bottom of the exit - coming from both sides of the expressway.  I normally always see the same homeless people there too - like they have dibs on a certain corner.  When we went to the eye doctor the week before last, I saw someone new.  It was a woman who was all bundled up, holding a sign that said "Homeless Family - Lost Everything - Need Help".  So that weekend I put together a care package with a bunch of necessities - socks, hat, gloves, rain poncho, toothbrush/toothpaste, food, etc. etc - and a Christmas card and I planned to give it to the first homeless person I saw - secretly hoping I would see this woman again.  But when I got off the expressway that Monday - I saw no one.  Not a single one of the familiar faces I had come to recognize after all of our trips down Fullerton.  So I kept the bag in my car and as I headed toward the expressway on Tuesday, on our way home, I again saw no one.  I was a little bummed out but I figured I would take my care package home and donate it to a local shelter - still achieving the purpose I set out with.  But just was I was about to get on the expressway - I saw that homeless woman!  She was working the opposite side of the street by the other exit.  So I swung a quick u-turn, put on my hazards and pulled up.  Then I called her over to the car and hoisted my giant bag of goodies out the window and wished her a Merry Christmas.  The smile on her face made my day.  And it felt far better than I ever could have imagined!

As I close this super long post, one final note of significance.  Our NICU nurse Joyce and her husband Adam welcomed their first child this weekend - on Christmas morning!  Thomas Joseph was born at 7:41 am on Christmas and weighed 9 lbs and 1 oz.  Congratulations to Joyce and Adam on your special Christmas gift!