Room Air!

Our neighbor volunteered to watch our kids today while I went to the hospital. She was watching her boyfriend's niece, who turned 6 years old a couple of weeks ago. The kids had fun playing with Angelina. Ian took a 45 minute nap (fell asleep downstairs). I had an appointment at 2pm with someone at the hospital to submit the paperwork for Oliver's medical assistance application. He qualifies based on his prematurity. I definitely welcome the additional medical coverage. They might pay for the transfer, if Blue Shield doesn't pay. Also, with the unknowns of what health insurance we'll have as a family starting January 1, it's nice to know that Ian and Oliver will be covered. After that was over I held Oliver (Kangaroo care) for one hour. He was doing much better today. His bilirubin count finally started dropping (albeit just a little), and they had him at 21% oxygen when I was there (compared to 30% yesterday). The CPAP was still at "3" (it goes from 1-11). Room air is 21%, which means they are no longer worried about his saturation levels going too high (normally the alarm goes off if his number goes below 85 or above 95. The doctor was very pleased and thus didn't order another echocardiogram. She said that if he does well tonight, he might go off the CPAP tomorrow! WOOHOO! He also is no longer receiving lipids by IV. They might totally stop the IV fluids as well tomorrow because he is consuming much more of my milk at each feeding.

One other bit of happy news from today was that I found my bracelet that I lost in January! It has been in the silverware drawer the past 7 months! Go figure!! It's broken, but Paul had paid for the warranty last August so it won't cost anything to have it repaired. We have another silverware holder on the counter, which is what we use most of the time. Obviously I don't dig in the silverware drawer very often! I really never expected to find this bracelet, but I am oh soooooooooo glad I did, as I think it's beautiful (sapphires) plus it was the gift Paul gave me for our 10th anniversary. Another thing that put a smile on my face today was seeing that I had lost 7 pounds in the past 5 days.

This morning I took the kids to the grocery store. Once I was there I realized Ian was going to have to walk since I'm not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds. He did pretty well considering it was his first time not sitting in the cart. I also let the kids play outside while I finally tackled that flower bed (which looked more like a grass/weed bed until I worked on it today). I had been embarassed anytime someone came to our front door. The flower bed doesn't look as good as it did in previous years, but considering it was given ZERO attention for three months, I think it looks pretty good now that I've weeded it again. This afternoon I made brownies. Oh they tasted SO good. Maybe the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" applies to food as well? LOL! It is SO nice to be able to eat chocolate again! By the time Paul came home (at 7:30pm), I was completely ready to crash. I got into bed the minute he came in the house. I can't ever remember a time in my life when this many muscles hurt at the same time. My arms/hands are fine, but otherwise I am in pain from my neck to my toes. I don't ever remember my toes hurting so badly. Reacclimating to life after 10+ weeks of bed rest is brutal, and I haven't even attempted my usual exercise yet (walking to the park). Just pulling weeds had me sweating and out of breath this morning. I also did my first load of dishes (in 3 months) and load of laundry.

Meal times are far more painful these days. It would be far easier just to feed him myself, but some day he needs to learn to feed himself. Breakfast took about 2 hours this morning. I wasn't up for another round of that so I just fed him at lunch. Nadia was the one who took an eternity for dinner (because I made her eat chicken, rice, and vegetables). At one point both of them were crying at the top of their lungs during dinner. Lovely. Karen (OT) stopped by and dropped off some yogurt for Ian today. Yesterday he pooped in his pants so I gave him a shower (which he hates). He had regressed a little in that regard while I was in the hospital. That did the trick as he pooped on the potty today.