Just thought you'd like to start your day the best way possible - looking at these two munchkins!
Because Barry and Canon arrived so late last night, we tried to sleep in as late as possible - about 8:00. Our first outing was to Sam and Alicia's. We visited their new place and got a tour of the hospital where Sam works. After lunch at Moe's BBQ, we went back to Lydia's so Canon could take a nap. Barry was very sweet and let me go visit Tera for the rest of the afternoon.
I got to the hospital in time to give her her 2:30 bottle. She is now taking 45cc in each feed, and the IV has been taken away! Also, there are no extra calories being added to her milk. Now, we just have to make sure she can gain weight without them, and that hurdle will be crossed.
As it turns out, having to go back on IV fluids has actually been a blessing to Tera's eating habits. I think that starting out with small bottles and slowly working our way back up has given Tera the opportunity to improve her bottle-feeding strategies. She sucked this bottle down just as she has every bottle since Thursday night. We haven't used the feeding tube since Wednesday night, just before the Bloody Diaper incident. When the bottle was empty, she laid down to rest.
Tera now weighs 2690 grams, which is 5 pounds 14 ounces. Her de-sats are minimal, and she hasn't had a brady (to my knowledge) since last Saturday. I'm told that when she chokes while taking her bottle and her heartrate drops too low, that this does not count as a true brady. Yes, her heartrate does get too low, but it's for a known reason that is easily seen and remedied. Having said this, she did have a couple of those kinds of bradies in the last week, but I don't think they counted against her. I wish I could explain how well she is doing. Her monitors are so quiet. Her oxygen saturation is almost always in the 90s unless she is straining (for obvious reasons) or readjusting her position to get more comfortable. I haven't used the blow-by in probably a week. In fact, I really don't even think about it anymore. She's still not 100%, but it's amazing how much closer she has gotten in just the last few days. Things are just clicking.
After holding Tera for about an hour, I decided I needed sleep as much as she did. I put her back in her bed and took a short nap on the couch. Then, it was feeding time again. This feels like having a new baby. Just as before, she finished it in no time. Not like before, she stayed awake once she was finished.
I think she knew that I needed to leave soon. We were going to eat at P.F. Chang's with Lydia and Christian, and I had just enough time to get back to the house, showered, and out the door. Tera knew that if she stayed awake and looked at me that I probably wouldn't leave her as quickly. She was right!
But once I saw this, I knew that I could make a quick get-away.
It's so hard to leave her like this . . .
. . . but I do have another child (two, if you count Barry) that I needed/wanted to tend to.
We were told at P.F. Chang's that it would be at least an hour long wait. Barnes & Noble is just across the parking lot, so Canon and I wandered over to kill time playing with the Thomas track they have set up in the children's section. When we got there, Lora, a college friend of mine, was there with her family. She has a one year old son, and I was surprised and happy that Canon played nicely. He did hoard a lot of the Thomas engines, but he worked really hard at not taking any away from him.
As soon as we got to the Thomas tracks, I began to worry about the moment that I would tell Canon we had to leave. When the time came, it was much worse than I could ever have imagined. First, he ran away from me, then laid face-down on the floor. When I picked him up, I held him at arms' length while he kicked his legs in mid-air. Dozens of symphathetic eyes watched me walk out with this screaming child. I couldn't even get mad at him. I had just walked him straight into Paradise for a quick visit when what he wanted was to move in. I don't want to be that parent that buys their child something everytime he pitches a fit to keep him calm and subdued, but tonight might have been the night to do it. He did play really well the whole time we were there . . . it could have been a reward for good behavior. Then again, do I want him to learn that he'll get something for acting the way he's supposed to act? These are the days when my Psychology degree is more harmful than helpful, when I overanalyze every possible outcome and never know if I did the right thing.
Though severely disappointed, Canon managed to pull himself together for dinner. Back at Lydia's, Barry and I put him to bed together. We haven't done that in months, and it was so much fun. Barry and Canon have been reading a book about David and Goliath at home. Though they didn't bring the book, Barry has obviously been telling the story using lots of sound effects, so they did a re-enactment of it for me before Lights Out. Canon twirls his hand in the air and makes a "whirring" noise (like a slingshot), then hits himself in the forehead and says "Boom!" to signify Goliath's demise. Next time you see him, please ask him to do it for you. It's hilarious!
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