Day 33 - A Day in the Life

Joshua and his friends! Mickey from us, Floppy Dog from Mamaw and Papaw and Don from Abby!

Today is day 33 of Joshua's life and hospital stay which leaves us 73 days until his hopeful homecoming.

I thought it would be interesting to type out what my day was like yesterday because it was one of those days!!

• 6:20 Woke up, went downstairs and dressed in the clothes I set out the night before. Pumped milk. Grabbed my lunch from the fridge that I packed last night. Headed out.
• 6:55-7:45 Driving in the morning traffic. Got a new security bracelet. Went upstairs to the NICU floor. Scrubbed my hands and signed in.
• 7:50-8:15 Held Joshua's hands and patted him. Talked to him and read him a book (Guess How Much I Love You) while waiting for the Dr's to come by.
• 8:15 The surgical rounds came by and we saw the doctors. We also heard that he was up a little in weight after being down the day before. He's now around 9 pounds 10 ounces. We discussed how much he's vomited lately and decided to move his nasal tube further down past the stomach into the intestines and hopefully that'll relieve him some. They said they'd try it in the stomach again soon. Also learned that they are going to give him his Zantac directly and not through his liquid feeds anymore to be sure he's getting a full dose.
• 8:30-9 Calmed and comforted Joshua as he had his nurse assessment. He hates being bothered by the blood pressure cuff, thermometer, stethoscope, diaper changing, etc..
• 9-9:30 Sat and held him in the rocking chair
• 9:30 Pumped milk
• 10-11:45 Sat and rocked him. Talked to him. Watched a little tv while holding him. He had his feeds changed.
• 11:45 Went to waiting room to eat lunch and call Daddy.
• 12:15 Came back in time for next nurse assessment. I decided to pump milk while she tended to him. It makes it a little easier for me to pump when he's being watched, because I'm always worried he's going to get upset and scream while I'm attached to the pump and can't get to him.
• 1:00 Got a call from Daddy that said he had won free tickets to a preview of the movie Where the Wild Things Are and we decided I would take the kids while he stayed with Joshua.
• 1-3 Snuggled and rocked with Joshua.
• 3:00 It was time to leave, but just at that time they decided to try and put the tube down further, so I stayed longer. He HATES anything done to the nasal tube and he didn't like this either. They thought they got it down, but we later found out it wasn't in the right spot. I stayed until he was calm and resting again.
• 3:20-4 Signed out, drove home.
• 4-4:15 Got home and pumped milk right away. Then we all 4 left.
• 5:00 Dropped Daddy off at the hospital and drove to Newport. While Daddy was with the baby, the did an x-ray and saw that they didn't get the tube in the right spot, they tried again, x-rayed again and it was still wrong, so they waited until the next day to do it down in radiology.
• 5:30 We arrived at the theater and sat down in the long line to eat our "dinner" - popcorn, nachos and cheese and candy!! I know, isn't that terrible!! At least we don't do that often!!
• 7-8:45 Noah, Abby and I watched the movie. I thought it was just ok. It had some funny parts and some touching parts, but overall I thought it was a bit much. Noah liked it, Abby didn't really care for it. It had some scarier parts that she was not fond of at all. I didn't like how the music was very loud and a bit overbearing and they said a few words I didn't want my kids to hear and I didn't care for how disobedient they showed Max being especially with no consequences. It was also very "artsy" and I hated the camera work they did (you know, like when the characters are running and the camera is running and bouncing along with them, it makes me dizzy when the camera does that). At least it was free and I did enjoy having some time out with my two older babies!!
• 8:45-9 We drove back to the hospital to pick up Daddy
• 9:00 We turn at the stoplight right in front of the hospital just as our car decides to go dead. The gas pedal wouldn't work anymore and we coasted into the lot and were able to park. Then as we stopped, the radio turned off, then the lights turned off and then the car was completely dead. Daddy came down and we talked to the security guards. They came back and tried to jump us, that didn't work. So we conversed with my Dad and decided we'd need to have the car towed. We ended up having Steve's mom come down and pick us all up and our car was towed to the dealer. We were so blessed to have this happen where it did, because just 4 minutes before it happened, we were still on the highway. And we were blessed to have a ride home and she's even let us use her car until we get ours back which will hopefully be Thursday after it's $700 fix!! Thanks Grammy!!
• 11:30 FINALLY arrived home, put the kids to bed, pumped milk, packed my lunch for the next day, set out my clothes for the next day and went to bed at 12!! I was so tired!! And to think, in just 6 hours I got to get up and do another crazy day!!

Can I just say that when this is all over and Joshua is clear for traveling, I am dreaming of getting away from everything and taking my husband and three kids to a beach somewhere and just sitting. Sitting on the beach with my family and thinking of nothing but them. We will all need this time to get used to our family of 5 all together and to rejuvenate. Aaaah, I can just imagine. So when we finally get there, don't call, 'cause I ain't answering!!!