A Trip to the Zoo and Finally Holding Asher!

This morning, the boys woke up a little early (not early for a normal day, just early for a spring break day).  They all climbed in Grandma and Grandpa’s bed and watched cartoons for a minute.  Looks that they ended up kicking Grandma and Grandpa out of bed. 

Shane and I left to go up to the hospital, and my parents and Shane’s mom took the kids to the zoo.  When we left, James was upset and was yelling “I want my mommy!”  I thought he would calm down pretty quick, but apparently he was pretty upset for awhile after we left.  He kept trying to get out the front door, so my dad finally just followed him out there.  He was crying and yelling “I want my mommy and daddy” as he walked down the sidewalk.  When he got to the corner, he looked back at my dad, then took off running!  He finally did calm down though, and had a great time going to the zoo.  I haven’t taken them in a long time, and today was a great day with perfect weather for the zoo.

 

James liked peeking through this little window to the polar bears:

 

Looking at elephants with grandpa and zebras with grandma.  Apparently, the baby elephant was playing with its poop. That was a story I heard from each boy, so it must have been pretty entertaining for a boy!  When I was asking them what their favorite animal was that they saw today, Davis said, among other things, the elephants. James immediately yelled out, “No Davis.  My elephant!”  Shane then asked James if he could have an elephant.  James said, “Yes Dad! My little elephant.  Yours BIG elephant!”

 

The sea lion was pretty cool, and kept swimming right by the side of the tank.

 

Meanwhile, Shane and I were up at the hospital with Asher.  He was peacefully sleeping when we arrived.  We did learn today though that he has chylothorax, which means there is some build up around the lungs, pretty common after heart surgery, and it makes it so he can’t digest the long fatty acids in my breast milk.  He has to switch to a special formula with medium fatty acids in it until it clears his system.  The nurse didn’t think it would be too long, but the cardiologist thought it would be six weeks before he could have breast milk again.  I’ll have to ask more tomorrow when our cardiologist is back.  I was a little depressed about that because they were pretty encouraging about me at least attempting breast feeding, but if he can’t even try for six weeks, he probably won’t be able to even partially breastfeed.  He also didn’t like the Portagen, the special formula he has to take.  He drank about half of the first bottle they gave him, but the other two he didn’t want at all, and he ended up taking both of them through his feeding tube.  I was a bit discouraged by all of this, but I talked to my amazing sister-in-law Liz who is a NICU nurse, and she reassured me that the chylothorax is very normal, and that Asher will be thrilled to switch back to breast milk when he can so all of my pumped and frozen milk won’t be wasted.  We’ll find out more when we talk to the doctor tomorrow.  I must say I have a newfound respect for Liz and all NICU nurses.  I would not all all enjoy finding those IV lines in such little babies!   They are also always so great and putting all the wires and IVs and things in once piece, wrapping the baby up, and giving him to you to hold. 

In other areas, Asher is still progressing and doing better and better each day.  He is getting the central line out of his neck tonight.  They tried to find another IV line to put his medicines through, but after lots of pokes, they weren’t able to find a good line.  I thought he’d have to keep the central line in, but the cardiologist said they could take it out and give him his medicines orally, so that was great news.  He still has his drainage tubes, small oxygen flow, and several other wires and monitors to keep track of everything, but he is doing better and better each day. 

The highlight of the day was holding him!  I held him twice to feed him a bottle, and then one other time after all of his IV pokes.  During the first bottle, he started making quite the grunting noises, then had a major blow out that required changing not only his diaper, but all the blankets wrapped around him too.  The last time, after all the IV pokes, he was really calm and alert for awhile, looking up at me and around the room.  He eventually fell asleep there, and I got to hold him for an hour or so while he had a nice nap.

Asher’s pulse ox on one toe, and his blood pressure cuff on the other ankle:

 

Holding Asher for the first time, and feeding him a bottle:

   

Shane didn’t want to miss out!  He got some cuddle time with Asher too.

 

Holding Asher while he sleeps:

   

After we got home tonight, the boys were excited to see us again.  They had fun watching a video I had taken of Asher with hiccups, and then got to enjoy some fun time with dad.