Julia loved her first time in a pool. She just smiled and floated around. Oliver loved the water too- he wears a life jacket and is very brave to swim around. He still doesn't like splashes to the face and isn't ready to dunk his head, but has so much fun. Parker was pretty attached to Eric and I think he would have preferred to run around the pool (great idea right?).
After swimming, we headed up the the room and gave the kids quick baths and got them ready for bed. Eric and I lounged on the couch and watched Indiana Jones (the hotel even had free popcorn and pop).
The next day, we got up and all went to get some breakfast, Parker rounded the corner for the elevator and fell- forehead to the corner, metal piece of the elevator.
The picture really doesn't show it well, but he had a HUGE bump on his head instantly and a small scrape on his nose. He looked a bit like on a klingon. We were amazed (and relieved) it didn't split open. So instead of us all going down, Oliver, Julia, and myself went down and grabbed some breakfast to bring back up to the room while Eric took Parker back to the room to calm him down. After eating, we just lounged around in our hotel room. Eric and I got ready for the day and got our room all picked up and our things packed up. We were sending the boys stuff a few doors down once my mom, Bob and Wendy got there and our stuff, along with Julia's was heading to the Ronald McDonald House. Around 11, everyone showed up to take the boys. We all went to eat at Applebees and right after we finished, Eric and I left with Julia to take her to a speech appointment.
The speech appointment was pretty easy going- the went over what Julia was doing and a few things to look for, but said she was doing wonderfully well. While there, we got the call that our room at the Ronald McDonald House was ready so we went and got checked in there. After getting our things all in place, we headed back to the hotel to see the boys and visit for awhile. We went to a restaurant where everything is gluten-free and peanut-free- unfortunately, they were filming a documentary that night so we grabbed a few treats for the boys and headed out to IHOP. Dinner was a little traumatic as Parker was beyond hungry and beyond tired- once he finally got his sausage, life settled down. We went back to the hotel and visited for a little while and played with the kids then we put the boys to bed and headed back to the RMH because we had to be at the surgery center at 6:30 the next morning.
Eric and I got settled in the RMH that night and let Julia play for awhile- she was so happy that night. She also sat up on her own for the first time!! She was pretty proud of herself. We set out all of our things to prep for the morning, gave her a bath in some crazy colored anti-bacterial stuff, set the alarm for her last feeding (done by 1:30) and for our morning wake-up (4:30), and headed to bed (at 12:30)
No big deal, I can sit now :)
Wednesday morning in the early hours (1:00 am), I nursed Julia for what is looking like will be the last time. She ate and went back to sleep, as snuggly as ever, not having a clue what was awaiting her in the morning. We woke up starting around 4:30 and started the getting ready process, showers, finding coffee for Eric, eating a little something. Even though she couldn't eat, Julia was happy, I could tell she was still tired, but she stayed pretty happy. We loaded her up in her car seat for the short drive to the surgery center and she fell asleep. That helped take a lot of the tension away. We got checked in a few minutes before 6:30 and waited for them to call her name and take us back.
Once they called us back, we had to wake her up and get her dressed in her hospital gown- hopefully we don't have to put her in one again, but she did look adorable.
After getting everything checked in for her, the anesthesiologist came in and talked with us for a few minutes and finally, the surgeon stopped and talked with us. Shortly after that, it was time for her to go, we gave her lots of kisses and snuggles (as gently as possibly because she was sleeping so soundly) and off to surgery she went (close to 8:30). We waited in the room for probably one of the longest, most gut-wrenching 1.5 hours I've had. We stayed busy playing games on the iPad/iPod and talking about mindless things. About 1 hour and 45 minutes later, the surgeon stopped in and said everything went very smoothly and she was in recovery and we'd be able to see her shortly. I called to let my mom know and also talked to Oliver. I told him her surgery went well- his response was, "can you email me a picture of the stitches in her tongue?" Not much longer, our nurse came in and said one of us could go see her so I headed back there- we knew what to expect, but it is so sad to see your baby like that and know (even though we knew it was what we should do) that it was our choice to send her back there. While her tongue looked pretty rough (they described it to us as hamburger and really that isn't too far off), she was on pain meds and didn't seem too uncomfortable. Eric was able to come back shortly and we spent just a little more time in the recovery room.
We got up to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) by 11:00. Most of the day was spent with her sleeping and us trying to help her any way we could- she liked to have her back/bottom patted so we stood beside her and did that a lot. The nurse who works primarily with these patients spent a lot of time with us. She said Julia was doing really well and actually had a lot less bleeding than some kids do. The nurse suctioned Julia's mouth fairly regularly because they have found one of the things that seems to bother the kids is the blood taste in their mouth. Of course, Julia didn't seem to like the suctioning, but did calm down as soon as it was over. While Eric was out grabbing some lunch, the nurse said I could hold her if I wanted to- I jumped at the chance and got her snuggled in on my chest. She seemed to relax and just sleep, which is really what she needed- and I will say, it was wonderful to hold her- you take for granted holding your baby until you have to wait until someone says it is okay to hold them.
A few hours later, Eric got a turn.
In terms of things actually happening, Wednesday was actually very quiet. Her a few pictures of her sleeping- she had to wear arm-splints in case she would try to pull any of her cords or tubes.
Wednesday night, Eric stayed at the hospital with Julia and I went the RMH to get some "solid" sleep. I was back at the hospital around 7:00 am Thursday morning and Julia had had a very good night, all things considered. Julia was up and doing a little bit of playing when I got there so I got to take a turn holding her.
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| Not quite as big of smiles, but we were definitely getting smiles this morning |
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| She loved pulling on her sock, one of her monitors was on her toe and made it light up red and she was so enthralled with her light-up foot :) |
The nurse came around 8:30 to try to do Julia's first feeding. It was quite the ordeal. She cried so much and just fought it. It was very sad to watch- she would get excited when she would see the bottle and then she was try to suck and just cry :( The bottle she used was basically like a squeeze bottle so most of it was squeezed into her mouth. It took the nurse feeding her and Eric and I trying all things to calm her and within 30 minutes, she had taken in about 6 ounces. One of the things that calmed her the most was watching videos of the boys on the iPad. The nurse actually said Julia's first feedings was one of the better first feedings she had done and that she had forgotten that Julia was a breastfed baby.
During the feeding my phone went off and I ignored it and then I heard Eric's so I figured I better check- it was my mom and she said they were at the hospital, my heart stopped briefly as I immediately assumed Oliver had had a reaction and they were in the ER- luckily that was not the case, they were just in the ramp and wanted to come see Julia. We told them we'd call when her feeding was over and they could come up. After her feeding, we talked with the nurse a bit and opted for pulling the feeding tube, at this point, Julia got unhooked from everything except her IV (in her foot). We called and everyone headed up. Eric went to meet them I took Julia out for a little walk. We all met up in one of the playrooms. Parker was excited to see us and running as usual. Oliver was a little nervous to see Julia and definitely more aware of the situation. He was afraid to hug her because he didn't want any stitches to come off. Such a sensitive big brother :)
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| Happy to be able to do something normal again! |
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| Parker was in awe of this train table |
The boys were sad to leave the play room, but were headed to the zoo so that helped. Eric did the next feeding and again it was pretty rough. He did good though. I did the following one- they really were a workout- both physically and emotionally- typically you don't keep doing things that make your kids cry.
We got some crazy news after my feeding- if we wanted to go home this night, we could. We took Julia out for a walk and talked about it a lot. We talked with the nurse some more when we got back-I think she could tell we were a little unsure and she suggested we just spend the night and get discharged in the morning. That sounded like a plan to us! Julia got switched to the regular Pediatric Unit. My mom, Bob, Wendy, and the boys came up again later that night to visit. Julia was being much more playful at this point. She had even got balloons and flowers from Aunt Kathy & Uncle Dale (one balloon Parker popped almost immediately after getting there).
We shared the excited news with everyone that we would be coming home tomorrow too! After everyone left, we cleaned up a little in our room and did another feeding. I tried to nap a bit while Eric was there because I was pretty unsure how the night was going to go. Around 10:00, Eric headed back to the RMH for the night. Julia did really well that night- she woke up twice to eat and I did have to call the nurse in to help me feed her both times, but I got it done. I was able to get some sleep even. After the early morning feeding (around 4:00), I just held her in the chair and let her sleep on me and I slept there too. Eric got to the hospital around 7:00. By 8:00, the nurse we had been working with came and started the discharge process for us- she also took Julia's IV out- we were really going home! We spent the next time getting our things together and playing with Julia. Around 9:15, we were leaving!!!
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| One last walk before we left- completely cordless!! |
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| Getting the safety check bands taken off so we could leave without setting an alarm off :) |
We went back to RMH and got our things together there and got our room cleaned up. Part of how the house works is you clean your room before you leave, remove your sheets and towels, etc. The boys and crew stopped over for a bit to see what the house was like. We did not spend a lot of time there (luckily), but it really was a wonderful place. Eric had got a chance to talk with some of the families who have been there for months and are from other countries. Everything is provided for you- they even have companies that come in each night and donate/serve a dinner meal to everyone. Bob, Wendy, my mom and the boys headed toward home. We got few more cleaning things done and the car loaded up.
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| Leaving the RMH |
We fed Julia one last time in St. Louis and jumped right in the car- we were hoping to make the whole drive and not have to feed her on the way- we weren't quite sure how that would work out. We were on the road by around 1:00, we went through a drive-through for some food, stopped and got tylenol for Julia in case we needed it halfway home, and filled up with gas and we were on our way. We got home shortly before 5:00 that evening and ordered some celebratory pizza with my mom, Bob, Wendy, and the boys. It was nice to be home!
So there you have it, 100 hours (1:15 PM Monday, April 24 through 5:15 PM Friday, April 28) of our life that were filled with lots of emotions, stresses, quiet prayers, some tears, lots of relief, and a lot of new information. I would never wish that anyone needs to go through this, but the hospital (Mercy in St. Louis) was amazing. EVERYONE was wonderful, the nurses and doctors were great. The hospital starts the day with a prayer over the loud speaker (not in patient rooms, I wondered about that the first morning). What was really nice to see was that even people in the halls seemed to always have a smile on their faces. The nurse from pre-op came and said it was great to work with us, wished us the best, and said "God bless." Not an experience I would want to do again, but all things considered, I think it was made the best it could be by the staff that was there.
