Home Sweet Home

There is just nothing like your own bed, especially when you have a back that is very particular about what you sleep on. I became particular about what I slept on eight years ago. Oliver needed to be on oxygen during his nap on Monday afternoon, but he was able to stay on "room air" during the night on Monday night so we were given our discharge papers around 9:15 on Tuesday morning. Walking to the car was almost more than Oliver could handle, but thankfully he made it (with a lot of coughing) because with a suitcase, purse, and a bag of toys I would have hard a very hard time trying to carry him at the same time. I drove to Paul's parent's house and picked up Nadia and Ian and then drove back home. After lunch Oliver threw up then I gave him a breathing treatment before he took a three hour nap. At first in the hospital they were giving him 12 breathing treatments a day, but they eventually weaned him down to 4 treatments a day (8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 8pm). The first time we gave him his oral steroids this morning he threw up all over the place. I talked to a nurse and she said to try again, and this time we got half of what he was supposed to have today down him without incident. I am taking him to the Pediatrician on Friday and the Pulmonologist on March 7. Yesterday I did schoolwork with Nadia and Ian in the afternoon (usually we do it in the morning) and then vacuumed, mopped the kitchen floor, did a load of laundry, did a load of dishes, cooked dinner, and did some general straightening up around the house. I went to bed at 9pm and had the best night of sleep I had in 11 days as I was only awakened once (at 3am by Oliver) between 9pm and 7am. Today we were back in our usual routine (except for the fact that Oliver isn't his normal self).

My mom had outpatient surgery this morning to insert a catheter below the other lung so that fluid can be drained as needed without poking any more needles into her. We are hoping this will help her breathe more easily and that in turn will give her more energy to work on her PT and OT exercises and such.

Last year I gave the kids each a puzzle for Valentine's Day. This year I gave them books. Oliver and Ian each received one of the bedtime math books (I HIGHLY recommend those three books - the kids LOVE them and they are doing math problems and they have different questions for different ability levels which means all of my kids can participate), and Nadia received a boxed set of four Amelia Bedelia chapter books (#5-8). She finished the last book last night, which means today she is back to reading Henry books (by Beverly Cleary) from the library. The library only had books #1-4 of the Amelia Bedelia chapter books, which is why I got those for her instead of the third bedtime math book (although I do want to get that third book at some point along the way). We had gotten the bedtime math books from the library, but I knew they'd be ones we'd use again and again and again so I wanted to own our own copies.  I also promised to buy them some candy after it went on sale so I got them a bag of conversation hearts after I returned from Maryland.