We're Home

Well, it has been a long weekend. I am happy to report that my scarf is not finished - because we only had to spend Friday and Saturday at the hopsital. If we had stayed another night, I would have been sleeping on the couch in a very cold, empty foryer and that would have been 100 times better than my first nights sleep. We had a toddler roommate who screamed a lot or played with very noisey toys (don't get me wrong, I felt bad for him being in pain but . . .) - he also had a father who snored. Oh, and did I mention the place they provided for me to sleep was a plastic chair that was supposed to become a bed - it would neither lay flat nor lock in a reclining position. As for the bathroom situation - only patients were allowed to use the ones in the rooms. Since both patients in our room wore diapers, niether one used the bathroom but all of the adults had to walk down the hall and hope that the bathroom wasn't already occupied. I am glad we didn't stay long enough to have to try and track down a shower to use! And let me add that our roommate's IV beeped on and off thru the night and everytime it did I had to call the nurse to come in and reset it - they never once called for their nurse. Am I venting?! Let's just say it was a long night. To add to that when we got to the hospital to check in the admission lady said they weren't told that we were coming and they didn't have a room ready for us. What ?!! She also requested our $5000 deductible right up front *@#!!! I had to get to the bottom of that one!

We spent a lot of time walking the halls at the hospital to stay out of our room as much as we could. A nurse tracked down a wagon for us to use and so I wheeled Alex all over the place. I could have ordered food from the room service since I was nursing but I just couldn't bear to so we both hung out in the cafeteria some too. The Philly Cheesesteak wasn't bad and niether was their Egg McMuffin-like breakfast sandwich. They would just call me on my cell phone if there was a doctor there that wanted to see us. Boy are cell phones handy.

We also spent some time in the Childlife Playroom where they had toys, toys, and more toys. Books, games, art projects, videos - you name it. What a great place that would be to work! There were also a couple of volunteer teenage girls working on an art project with a cute little girl who had just had her appendix out. Alex fell in love with a Leap Frog Baby toy that spins around and makes music, alphabet and animal sounds. It was a great toy - if you are looking for a new gadget for your little one.

Alex handled things relatively well in the hospital (because of that and our easy access to a Pediatrician :), they trusted us to leave a day early - hooray!) but he has had a rough go at home. He had not really scratched or pulled at his NG tube and that seemed like a miracle - we were so proud. Well, yesterday he was playing on the floor and then suddenly I heard him start to SCREAM! I ran over and not only had he pulled his tube almost all the way out but he had ripped all of the extremely sticky tape off his cheek. Ouch! So, Nurse Nancy (Me) set everything up last night and asked my assistant (Matt) to help me restrain our little patient and I put the tube back in his nose and taped it on. Since the tube was only inserted once during our hospital stay, the nurses asked that I do it for the first time. They even gave me my own stethescope beacuse part of inserting the tube is checking if it is placed correctly. You pump a little bit of air into his tube and listen for the "bubble" in his stomach! It went pretty well for my first time and I am glad that I did it so I felt confident at home that I could do it again. It definitely is a two person job though.

Matt and I decided that since we can't take Alex off the tube until he is drinking enough on his own that we would wean him right away from breastfeeding so he could jump in fully to cup/straw drinking. Alex seemed miserable for the first couple of days - he wouldn't eat or drink anything and he would look longingly at me while licking his lips. Man, that's hard - especially since it was such a struggle to get him nursing to begin with and by some miracle I have had enough milk to feed him for this long. It was emotional to nurse him that "one last time ." Alex did much better with eating/drinking yesterday afternoon. When I say better, I mean that he actually let us put food or milk in his mouth - quantity of food is another story. I am frustrated that he is still eating babyfood but I know that getting him drinking on his own is the more important issue right now.

This is going to be a struggle and worrisome but I hope that some day, in a year or so, we will look back on this and think, "What were we so concerned about?!" That'll be the day. So, if I am MIA for a while, just know that I am at home spoon feeding all of the calories that I possible can into our little Alex. The crazy thing is, after his first night's feed, the nurses weighed him and he had gained 10 oz.! Ha! If he keeps that up we may get through this faster than we think.

Thank you to everyone for your love and concern. Keep the prayers coming - they have certainly worked in the past and we sure feel like we need it now. Love to all.