Hospital Rule Number 1

Never sit out in the lobby all alone with soft piano music playing and look thru the pictures on your camera of your newborn baby and the rest of your family. No ... don't do this ... it's grounds for a bawl fest. :)

Everything is looking up. Kadin seems to be on the upswing from the surgery. When I went to see him this morning, I could see immediately how well he was. He has improved tremendously in the past 24 hours. His vent settings have come down ... 34 breaths a minute instead of 50 and 60 like he had before. His feeds have increased from 1ml to 3ml now. His blood gases are very good which helps them change the settings on the vent. I just have nothing bad to report today. PRAISE GOD!

This picture is Kadin right before surgery at Cook Children's Medical Center. >>>>

I'm just glad he has not been having these episodes where he clamps down and doesn't breathe or have a heartbeat. He did this like 4 times since Friday night after his surgery. They have to "bag" him and give him oxygen and pray his heart restarts. I think the longest episode they said lasted about 45 seconds but that it doesn't damage him, it is just scarey as the day is long !!!! He did it once while I was there and that was about 10 seconds, but it was a very long 10 seconds !!! Don't want anymore episodes like that. The nurses told me that unfortunately it is pretty common for a baby to do this after extremely stressful situations, or during, such as surgery or even infection. They don't like to see it but they are well trained to take care of it should it happen!

This morning when I went to see him, I walked up to his bed and started talking to him. He opened his eyes and just looked in my direction for quite awhile. I kept talking to him and he squirmed around. But he just looked so alert, so interested in knowing mommy was there. It made me cry, of course .... because the nurses say he doesn't do that with them. I wish I could be by his bedside for 24 hours every day. They have his arm "tied down", it's actually behind held to the bed with a huge safety pin so that he does not damage that arterial line, but anyway, he hates it, so he pulls his arm sometimes.

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This evening when I went over, he was ON HIS TUMMY! Yes, the nurse put him on his tummy and said HE LOVES IT !!!! She said she could not get him uncurled off his tummy last night cuz he loves it so much. He is resting so very well like that, and it's probably because he is really snug like he was in mommy's tummy. I finally could see his incision and wow ... you can't even tell it was there. I mean, you can see it a little bit, but it is almost like it was never there. It is about 2 inches long too. It is simply amazing !!!! I forgot my camera for tonight's visit but the nurse on shift took some of him on his tummy for me. His head was turned away from me so I went to the other side of his bed and started talking to him and again, he opened his eyes and tried to see me. I swear this morning he smiled at me ....just melted me !!!!! I got "kicked out" of the unit tonight because they had a new admit coming. Something serious happened, not sure what, but as they were preparing for that baby to come in, someone in the lobby was having a complete breakdown over it. It was horrible ... very emotional. I just pray everything was alright. You never like to see that kind of thing, but unfortunately, that's what happens in an NICU. I did find out from a girl I have befriended that the unit lost a baby yesterday. The baby was one of a set of triplets .... really stinks to hear that but makes me feel even more fortunate that my baby is thriving the best he can at this point.

I am sleepy and need some more rest, even tho I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. I am exhausted, still .....