Moved to the Pediatric Floor

Last night was another fairly good night, with Asher sleeping good and eating a little more at each feeding.  He did wake up once crying pretty hard, and we couldn’t console him, so his nurse gave him a little more morphine to calm him and help him go back to sleep.  This morning, I took a few minutes while Asher was sleeping and went to the Family Wellness Center they have here to run on the treadmill.  It felt good to get the chance to exercise a little after sitting in a hospital room for two days. 

Once I got back, they were pretty much ready to move us down to the Pediatric floor.  I was excited because in the PICU, you have your own room, but there is no shower, and the front wall is just windows, so not too much privacy.  The room is also more crowded just because there is so much equipment in there.  The peds floor is much more private, with a door to close and a shower in your room.  The nurse here as been really good, and she has been trying to manage his pain with just Tylenol with codeine alternated with ibuprofen.  That seems to be working well, and then he doesn’t get the extreme drop when the morphine wears off.  We wrapped him in his own swaddle blankets, which are so much softer and bigger than the hospital ones, so it is easier to get him nice and cozy. 

He had the blanket kind of up on his face, so I tried to pull it down, but he got mad, so I decided to just leave it.

 

We no longer have a view of the Fremont bridge – just all of the trees.  It’s still pretty though.

 

When Asher is asleep, and I don’t need to pump, it seems so quiet in here I almost don’t know what to do with myself without three other boys to take care of, laundry to wash, a house to clean, meals to cook, etc.  It’s kind of nice for a change.  This afternoon, my mom brought the boys up to the hospital again.  They had some pictures they had drawn and wanted to show me, and then I took them up to a sand-art activity while my mom stayed with Asher.  They had fun choosing what colors to put in their bottles.  Landon did a cool bottle, and Davis and James chose a baseball and soccer ball to fill with sand. 

After they left, I fed Asher another bottle.  He’s been taking about 3 oz each time, which is about an ounce less than his average, but still pretty good.  What I have been most anxious about all day is if he will have any signs of chylothorax in his drainage tubes (which required him to go on the yucky formula last time instead of breast milk).  As of 5 p.m., still no signs of it.  If his next one is clear, we should be past the time when it would have shown up, so we are praying that it remains clear.  After I fed him, I held him for awhile while he slept, and when I moved him back to his bed so I could pump, he woke up for a few minutes.  It was the most peaceful and most awake I have seen him since his surgery.  He was only that way for a few minutes, but it was nice to see his big blue eyes looking around calmly.

 

Tonight, he got pretty upset again and wouldn’t calm down.  We were debating on whether or not to give him morphine, but decided to wait a few minutes to see if his ibuprofen kicked in.  He did calm down, and then he was awake again for awhile this time, looking at Shane while I held him.  He even started cooing and gave a few half smiles.  It is nice to see some more of our sweet Asher coming back.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to get his pacer wires out, his smaller drainage tubes if there is no chylothorax (he still has two smaller and one bigger one), and maybe another IV (he still has two, one a central line).  Our nurse tonight is one we had last time and really liked.  It has been kind of fun to see some of the same nurses again this time around.  It is a beautiful hospital with amazing people taking care of Asher.