Little by little things are getting better with Josiah! He got one of his two remaining IV lines out last night. He had a good night last night—wasn’t up ALL night long. I have found that I enjoy the whole new mom thing very much, except I usually sort of hit the wall during one of the night feedings and just feel like I can’t do it anymore. Nick has been very helpful during these times. He’s a really good dad and is always ready to jump in and change a diaper—usually without even being asked! (Woo Hoo Nick!)
Right now Josiah is down getting a chest x-ray to see how things are progressing with the fluid in his lungs. This morning the doctor said they sounded great, so we're hoping the x-ray will say the same thing.
They have PROMISED me that I am meeting with lactation today to work on breastfeeding. He is slowly but surely increasing the amount he’s taking by mouth. Last night at one of his feedings he actually ate the WHOLE amount by mouth—I couldn’t believe it. And this morning we did a feed where he had all but ¼ of it by mouth… he’s getting there. I am VERY motivated to work on it as I don’t want to take him home with a feeding tube.
One thing he can’t seem to do is get off the oxygen. They tried again last night while we were all sleeping. (That was news to me… I slept through the whole thing.) He’s only on .1 liters of oxygen, but whenever they take it off his oxygen saturations dip by about 15%... it’s weird, but not really uncommon with cardiac patients. The doctor did say that they wouldn’t send him home until he’s off oxygen though—which is good for me, because I think I would always be worried about it.
His skin abscess (from his incision) still looks gross, but they are treating it pretty aggressively with antibiotics so they don’t expect it to become a problem. He will likely get his stitches out today. (His main incision isn’t stitched, it is glued. But where his chest tubes went in and his pacing lines went in he has to have stitches taken out.)
We are really more and more in love with this kid every moment of the day. He’s a very agreeable baby. Gentle and quiet for the most part, but he will wail when he’s not happy about something. And it’s pretty sweet, during the night when he’s awake (and we are not) he will just quietly cry and fuss until you go over and just let him know you are there. I can reach my hand from my bed to his bassinet and I just put it on his chest and tell him I am there and that’s usually enough to calm him down. It’s pretty endearing.
We had a few more visitors last night—Kris and Chelsea Loomis and Deena. It was really great to see them and just get to share our lives with people again. (Pics of their visit are posted…) Deena asked us how we’ve changed since all this has happened… I thought of several things immediately, but I continue to think of new answers to this question.
My first answer is that it has made me so much more “able” to receive help and service from others. I know I keep saying this, but this is just something we could not have gotten through on our own. Our friends and family have just stepped up in HUGE ways to help us. We’ve seen so many people sacrifice so much to help us and it’s just overwhelming because I know it’s something I can never repay. But I guess that part of being a friend and being a member of a family is just accepting that kind of help with a thankful and humble heart. (Something I have previously been no good at.) So thank you again, friends, for all you have done and helping me with this.
I have other things I want to say but I will save the thoughts for another time since this has already gotten kind of long.
Much love to you all…
Gwenn
