Last night Oliver perked back up. He started crying when he was hungry (hadn't done that for more than 24 hours), which meant all the feedings were no longer initiated by me. I got very little sleep last night because he either wanted to be held or be fed. He went back to nursing well, which was a HUGE relief. I finally fell asleep at 6:15am (after having been up for hours), and then Ian came in my room at 6:45 so I got very little sleep last night. Paul left for PSU around 4am. I stayed in bed until 7:45am with Ian and Oliver as I figured a little time being horizontal (even though I was awake) was better than nothing since Nadia was still asleep. I was very exhausted physically, but emotionally I felt a million times better than I did yesterday. I was so worried about Oliver ending up back in the hospital, of having to make more frequent trips to the Pediatrician for weight checks, of Oliver not wanting to nurse any more, etc. This morning I called the Pediatrician and cancelled Oliver's appointment since I could tell he was back to normal. Yesterday I hardly ever saw his eye balls. Today he had times of being awake. Yesterday he never pulled out his cannula. Today I had to put it back in many times. Yesterday he slept no matter what he was wearing or where he was placed. Today I had to work harder to get him to sleep in the pack 'n play (swaddle him and such). I continued with my plan though to get him to try to consume a bit more by bottle even though he nursed better today. I am really trying to get his weight up to 5 lbs by his next Pediatrician appointment. I weighed him today, and he weighed 5lb 7oz, which means he gained one ounce since I weighed him yesterday. YAY! I won't weigh him again for a few days as I don't want to stress myself out. I'm hoping that once he gets bigger and stronger (and his lungs are healthy) that he'll be able to nurse well enough that I won't need to also give him bottles, but the good news is that at least he's only drinking my milk all day as that's the only thing going in the bottles (aside from medicine and vitamins).
A woman from church who is retired (a great grandmother) and lives very close to us told me on Sunday that she'd help me out whenever I needed some help with any of the kids. I called her today to see if she'd go with me when I was taking Nadia to ballet/tap. She rode with us which enabled me to run into the hospital while she was in the car with the kids so I could sign a form to have my records sent to the insurance (still trying to get the insurance to pay some bills), and it also meant I was able to take Oliver and Ian to the playground while she took Nadia to her dance class. I have hardly spent ANY time outside over the past 3 1/2 months. It was heavenly to be outside for 45 minutes. The only tricky part was when Ian said he had to go to the bathroom, but the Lord provided and another mother helped lift Ian on to the porta potty as I wasn't sure how I could do that while holding Oliver and his oxygen tank, etc. Sheri said she really enjoyed watching Nadia's dance class. She is going to watch Nadia at her house when I take Oliver and Ian to Ian's feeding appointment next Tuesday. I am so grateful for her help! She said it's also a blessing for her as otherwise she's at home by herself most of the time.
The bottom line was that today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. Ian napped for 90 minutes, and I was able to sleep for one hour during his nap (until Nadia woke me up to tell me that the phone was ringing). Yesterday had many rough moments. I thought the tv was broken (thankfully last night Paul figured out it was a problem with the strip it was plugged into). When I went to the mailbox, Nadia gave Ian a cracker that had peanut butter and jelly on it. I almost had a stroke when I came back in the kitchen and realized what he was eating. It was his first time ever consuming any peanut butter. I don't have an epi-pen. I was immediately searching for Benadryl in case we needed that and was wondering if we were about to take a trip to the ER. He has a cold so he was coughing, and I wasn't sure if it was due to eating the peanut butter or not. Thankfully he stopped coughing a few minutes later and never showed any reaction to the peanut butter. Whew. I never used to worry about him eating something he was allergic to since he didn't want to eat ANYthing. Now that he's eating more foods I need to be more diligent in making sure he doesn't get his hands on something he shouldn't eat. Those are just a couple of examples of what made yesterday a rather stressful day for me. Thankfully today was a much better day!
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