I've been trying to get time to update about what is happening with Hannah, as well as the rest of the family, and haven't had much luck. I am copying a couple of paragraphs from an email I sent to one of our friends and posting here just to get a brief update--read between the lines to see what must have happened in the meantime. A little later I hope to post something about the rest of the family. Copy from email follows:

Sorry for the delayed reply. Hannah was sick yesterday and we spent the whole day at the doctor's office. Once again threw our schedule off--like it wasn't screwed up enough already. :)

Hannah is gaining a good bit (she is up to 15 lbs., 13 oz.!). We're getting used to the effects on our time and schedules. Her current challenge is a urinary tract infection probably resulting from diarrhea induced by the antibiotic with which we were treating her respiratory infection (which she still has). But the treatment yesterday seems to have made a great deal of difference already, and she seems to be doing better. Janet will take her back to the doctor this afternoon for an update.

Hannah continues to make strides (metaphorically speaking). From March 8 to March 15, she gained 14 ounces! On March 19, she had lost 2 ounces, but that's still a net gain of 12 ounces for the period. We'll see tomorrow what she's doing right now. You can see her cheeks filling out a little bit, and her ribs aren't quite so prominent.

Dr. Schindel, her surgeon, thinks she's doing great, and that she might grow enough to have her button replaced in about two months. Meanwhile, he treated the granulation tissue with silver nitrate (which basically burns it away) and showed us how to use it so we can treat at home.

Janet had a necklace made to represent the family members. Here is a picture of it. You can see the stones; you might like to know it's on a 20-inch chain. You might also like to know you can click on the picture to go to the Web site of its maker.

Miss Hannah out for her constitutional.	After a nice ride, one needs one's hair taken care of.

	Miss Hannah seems quite comfortable, despite the fact that she is resting in Janet's desk drawer.
	Let me get a closer look!

Do we have to do this picture thing?	OK, maybe it is funny after all

Zach seems displeased with his heart, doesn't he? Hannah lovingly gave this to him, made with her very own spit.

If you really want to see what granulation tissue looks like, click on the thumbnail at the left. Don't look unless you really, really want to see it, though. It's a very large image, and will take awhile to download, especially on a dial-up, so be forewarned.

We finally noticed something strange today. We've told dozens of people about Hannah going from 13 pounds 6 ounces to 14 pounds 1 ounce, and have exulted over the "7-ounce gain!" It's even in the last post. I thought about just editing it, but it's too fun to tell this story on ourselves. Did anyone happen to notice that the difference between 13 pounds 6 ounces and 14 pounds 1 ounce is more than 7 ounces? Janet felt a little foolish, but then, nobody else seems to have caught it either. I certainly didn't, and I'm supposed to be a copy editor. What it means is that Hannah didn't gain 7 ounces from Monday to Friday last week. She gained 11 ounces! Whoa!

(Janet here... I have always been somewhat measurement challenged. I can m"measure" with my eye but numbers? Forget it! I think I was thinking in feet... 12 inches to a foot = 12 ounces to a pound! Hey! If it's not in 10's... )

When we realized that, we decided that this could possibly be too fast, and that if she has that rate of gain when we go to the doctor for her nine-month checkup tomorrow we're going to talk to the doctor about possibly backing off on her calories.

On the other hand, when they weighed her last Friday she was just starting to dirty her diaper. Maybe it was quite a load she was waiting to get rid of!