We had a relatively relaxing Christmas break. Friends came over on Christmas Eve, but otherwise we have just "stayed home" and taken it easy--no partying, very little running around shopping.

We had hoped by this time to have Caty visiting with us, but she postponed it from last Saturday to today for us to pick her up, and in the meantime had a relapse of the flu, so for now she is not coming. I am disappointed, but we understand. She hopes she can come down the weekend of Martin Luther King Birthday, since it will be a long weekend.

Hannah pulled her feeding tube out again on Dec. 21, but we really hadn't given her anything by tube except her Zantac since Dec. 13, so the doctor decided we could leave it out until she had one of those 13-ounce days. So far, she's kept up her "production" at 17 ounces or higher.

We've started sticking with the scheduling thing (which we all temperatmentally resist, but which appears to actually be needed by Hannah)—we offer Hannah six ounces, of which she typically takes five or five and a half within 20 minutes or so, and then we don't feed her again for three to three and a half hours, ensuring that she is hungry enough to eat fast enough to fill up before she tires out.

But she has stopped gaining again. The doctor says that if she doesn't gain by Friday, the tube has to go back in AND we will start giving her as much as she'll take in ten minutes and then give her the rest of it by tube, to get her used to taking as much as possible in ten minutes. And we will also have to get up in the middle of the night to give her a complete feeding by tube, in order to get the day's total up to 24.

We really hope she gains, because Janet and I are both already exhausted, and don't need to have to get up in the middle of the night (a complete tube feeding would take at least a half hour, and more like an hour).