We are in Cincinnati

We finally arrived in Cincinnati about 2am Tuesday morning (after working all day and then driving). Lily was a great traveler- only cried a few times about wanting to get out of the carseat. Tues morning was a little tough getting up early and trying to find our way to the clinic. I had mapquested the main campus but when they sent the updated itinerary 5 minutes before we left town, I did not see that the campus was changed to their Liberty campus and although there was a "map" it was not oriented to where we were staying and we had no idea. We had a GPS so we headed out thinking we would be fine- picture this- it is raining and miserable on top of it all-- and the location is not in GPS so I went by things we read online and eventually arrived (only 5 minutes late--but with too much stress!) At one point we were trapped in a fast lane and could not take the exit we wanted and had to go a few miles to get out and then turn around, but in the end, we made it and the place was very nice.

It was a tough procedure for Lily but the child life specialist was amazing. They had a Dora DVD and lights and toys to distract her. At first she seemed like she was going to be fine, but as soon as we laid her on the table, she started crying and resisting. It was not fun but she did deal better than she could have. It was hard to watch her cry, but they got the procedure done as quick as possible. After that we were all pretty wore out- Lily fell asleep as soon as we got into the car so we just grabbed something to eat and went back to our hotel to rest. It continued to rain all day but we did venture out in the evening to get some exercise walking around the mall (a block away) and we brought back a cheesecake factory dessert- yummy. We like the hotel the hospital helped set up for us- it is a suite with a full kitchen and hot breakfast. The pool is small and outside and it is kind of chilly to us so we have not tried it out.

This morning we had the ultrasound and tried to prepare Lily as best we could. It was pretty simple but she still cried and had a tough time but she was consolable. We know that she has two kidneys and a uterus, but we have to wait for the doctors to give all the info. Then we were free for the rest of the day so we went to see the guest services and they gave us a welcome pack and free tickets to the Cincinnati Museum. So we went and toured the dinosaur exhibits and went through a cave and an iceberg and played with lots of fun things and went into the Children's museum to play for a while. Lily had a lot of fun and kept Dad on his toes. I wish I had brought the camera. Now Dad and Lily are sound asleep which is why I can type without "help" from Lily.

Lily has done well but she keeps asking for Kylee. It is nice to see how close they are. Lily is so protective of "my sister." Lily is handling this all better than I had imagined. She is very resilient and I think she is enjoying the one on one time with mom and dad.

Tomorrow we will be going very early in the morning for the day surgery to evaluate all that Lily will need to have done. Then the afternoon will have two extensive tests. On Friday we do a final XRay and meet the doctor to discuss all the findings. Please keep us in your prayers as we finish the testing this week. I will update when we can.