December 30th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
(Day to Day)
We still have one holiday to go, so it’s not quite post holiday normality, but it’s been pretty quiet around here between the holidays. Sabrina has more than doubled her bottle in the time she has been home. The last dose of methadone was the evening of the 25th with no withdrawal symptoms at all. She is nearing 11 pounds and she has started sleeping for a pretty impressive stretch during the night. Still not quite a full night, but it’s good enough for government work… since I work as a contractor for the government and I haven’t fallen asleep in a meeting since the first week she was home. Sorry Kurt… but it was a pretty long meeting.
Nothing really new medically since the visit with the surgeon. We have seen her pediatrician a few times for shots and again for the day she came off the methadone. She has moved on to the dissolvable Prevacid tablets, (1/2 tablet twice a day, Strawberry flavored, or so the package claims). Yes, it is odd to give pills to a baby, however these dissolve in the mouth and release over time. The liquid had no time release component. We have also pretty much stopped the carafate and are using Mylanta Supreme (Cherry flavored, or so the package claims).
Nothing much else to report. One set of grandparents has returned home after almost three weeks of following Douglas around, I think they needed a break. The other set is on their way over now to babysit so Mom and Dad can go out to dinner… a quiet dinner… one without chicken dinos. I will work on the pictures, I promise… I just won’t promise when I will work on them. With one set of grandparents out of town again, it had better be soon, or they might withhold Firecracker Salmon when they return…
Mmmmmm……. Must have spicy fish… Mmmmmmm….
2 Comments
December 19th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
(Douglas, Sabrina)
It’s hard to find enough hours in the day to get anything done. Sabrina is doing great. She will be off the methadone next week. She is eating and asking for more. She is a healthy kid. I took her to her appointment with her surgeon on Monday. She had a chest x-ray and an exam. The x-ray looked great, her heart is still a bit off to the right but that is not a problem and her lungs look good. She has a bit of a bump on her scar that he said was a suture location and it would go away. She is sleeping pretty well, usually one long stint and a short stint during the night. Douglas appears to have adjusted and the cat couldn’t care less so long as her dinner shows up on time.
I tried putting her in the jump-a-roo that we have from her brother. It was his favorite thing his first Christmas, the boy was a jumper and a kicker. She wasn’t terribly interested. She still thinks her mobile is the greatest thing ever. It makes her happy when it’s running. I have plenty of pictures and I will try and put a few up this weekend.
2 Comments
December 14th, 2007 at 11:39 am
(Douglas, Sabrina)
Sabrina is doing great. She is sleeping, eating, giggling, kicking her hanging toys. She is taking her medicine and she is nearly off the methadone. Only a week and a half left till she is done with it. She has seen the doctor for her first set of shots… she was thrilled in a yelling and crying kind of way. Douglas developed a dislike for the paper on the examining table due to shots. When he was younger we could not put him on the paper without him flipping out. He came to associate the crinkle with getting stuck with needles. I can’t really blame him for it. Fortunately he is over it now.
We are back in to see the surgeon on Monday for a chest xray and a checkup. She has a funny, almost cyst like bump along her scar but it is not bothering her. I called the surgeons office and he said if she is not in any discomfort, it could wait till Monday. Right now the only discomfort in the house is Mom and Dad’s sleeping schedule… mostly Mom’s.
Comments
December 9th, 2007 at 11:10 am
(Douglas, Sabrina)
We are still here, and one week has gone by since bringing the baby home. I have not been down to this computer all week. She is sleeping right now and I had logged in to do some family tech support. So since I am here. We brought her home on three medications and no home monitors. She is on Prevacid and Carafate for the reflux and Methadone for the narcotic addiction. Tomorrow we bring the methadone dose down again bringing her to less than 50% of where she started. We are still not seeing any signs of reflux, which either means she does not have reflux or that the medications are doing exactly what they are suppose to do. She is sleeping very well, I decided to stay up till her 11pm feeding last night so I sat down played some Metroid Prime. I kept listening for her to wake up, finally at 12:30 I wanted to go to bed so I woke her up to give her the feeding. So she is easily going four and a half hours between some feedings. She also seems to have adapted to the days and nights and started sleeping more at night and being more awake during the day. She has had her first visit to the pediatrician and received her first set of shots outside the hospital. She was due for four shots and a liquid, she was a bit behind since she is two months old. The doctor could not bring herself to give her four shots on one day so we scheduled the other two for two weeks out. Other than that, we have a three year old who is adjusting… slowly… He is acting up a bit but it was expected. When asked what he thinks about his baby sister, he says “Not much” but he likes her. He told me it’s not easy having a baby sister. I told him it’s harder not having one. Someday I will have to explain that one to him. Not today.
3 Comments
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
(Sabrina)
Three good bottles at home today. She just fell asleep on my shoulder while I played City of Heroes. Not a bad day at all.
3 Comments
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
(Sabrina)
But it was only Day 54 till we walked out of the hospital at 2:00 pm snapped her seat into its bracket and drove away. Now it’s a new day. I just finished with her first, at home, bottle. She took the whole thing and promptly went to sleep. She is sleeping in her crib as I type.
We spent some time at the hospital yesterday. Heather took Douglas to the mall while I spent time with her and then Heather spent time with her while Douglas and I spent time in the Ronald McDonald room. We watched Chicken Little and Doug was able to meet I giant therapeutic dog named Zane, a red/brown Doberman. The dog was as tall as Doug. We went to Babies R Us and Sam’s Club last night. Don’t let anyone fool you, these little creatures are expensive. I asked Douglas to pick a toy for Sabrina, he picked a soft soccer ball with a jingley bell inside. I think she will like it.
We picked up a few children’s movies and dropped them off in the Ronald McDonald room today. Chicken Little was the newest movie they had. The Ronald McDonald room is a nice place with a TV/DVD/Video Games, food, drinks, laundry and a shower and a few other things for children who find themselves in the role of patient and the families of pediatric/neonatal patients. They gave us a place to rest, the least we could do was update their library a bit.
Hey, speaking of supporting kids at hospitals. Check out Child’s Play. They collect money, toys, games, etc, to donate to children’s hospitals around the world. They are set up so you can pick something from Amazon for a local hospital or just donate to their general fund and they will spread it around to all the hospitals they support. Well, I didn’t intend for this to be a public service announcement. I’ve just seen the kids at the pediatric center at St. John’s and anything that might bring a bit of joy into their lives is worth it. On a side note, St. John’s is not on the Child’s Play list, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support a hospital near you.
2 Comments
December 1st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
(CDH, Sabrina)
I had a dream last night that today would be Christmas… I was convinced when I woke up that there would be presents. Probably because we were told on Friday that she is coming home on Sunday. Day 54 will be the last day spent at the hospital. I have been hesitating to put this post up just in case something changed. Nothing has. She has taken all her bottles for the last several days. She is playing and has taken swings at her dangling toys. She is happy and smiling and coming home tomorrow. I think our ducks are as in a row as they can get at this point. We are going to pick her up around 1:00 pm tomorrow.
If anyone from work is reading this, I won’t be in till next Tuesday… I’ll call Monday morning. That’s it, I’m going to bed.
5 Comments