In around 10 again. Abby was once again the lucky nurse to have charge of Timmy tonight. She's fun. Good to see her again after many weeks of missing the Summerkamps. Our schedules weren't coinciding whatsoever for a while there. Glad I got to see them a few more times at least before Dakota was discharged. From the sound of things, he is home and doing well. Not quite sleeping through the night yet =) but doing what he should be doing.
As is our little guy. I called Dana this afternoon, making sure to catch her after rounds, and she told me that the cultures were negative again this morning at 48-hours out. Dr. Shehab came in to look at Timmy again and she followed him out into the hall to ask about Timmy's discharge date, bless her heart. He said that he initially was thinking Sunday (5 days on IV) but really thinks Tuesday would be better. So we are planning on next Tuesday being Timmy's date for discharge. Feeling pretty optimistic, as both the other cultures had become positive by 24 hours. Fingers and toes crossed and the heavens petitioned...
Here is how Timmy looked when I arrived tonight.
Sweetest little angel. I love the way he was resting his right hand on the moisture collar tubing. (He has to wear the heated moisture collar 12 hours a day - generally whenever he's sleeping - to maintain a good airway environment. There is an artificial "nose" he wears that does the job during the day - the large dot seen in other pictures - and when we need him to be more portable, but it doesn't do as good a job for the long haul.)
Funny how the angle of a photo can make such a difference. He looks like such a chub!
Abby said that someone must have been discharged because the mobile was up. Dana put it up yesterday. It's the same one Lauren tried to attach to Timmy's isolette a month ago. Very cute little rainforest theme. Also remarkably heavy and sturdy so it definitely needs a crib to hold on to. Timmy watched it a little tonight. So cute!
Timmy's setup. I'll be honest. The metal of these cribs looks rather prison-like to me. I love the size and functionality, but so prefer the cutesy stuff of a home job.
I didn't want to wake Timmy on accident so I just kissed him when I got there and settled in with my knitting and chatting with Abby and Joanna. They are very entertaining. Apparently Abby has a dog that is getting to be rather overweight. She works six nights in a row and doesn't get a lot of time to walk her dog so she decided to take her yesterday on her day off. They made it about a block before her dog just sat down and refused to budge. She had to lug her 30+ pound canine home in her arms. I can honestly say, after carrying around twins that weigh about that much, that I do know how that feels. It's a great bicep workout!
The day had been pretty busy with a discharge and a new baby getting moved into our room and Timmy's feeding schedule got pushed back an hour so he wasn't due to eat until midnight. I'm pretty good at keeping myself occupied so not a problem. (Just a problem focusing. I really shouldn't be working on anything requiring counting after 10pm.) It occurred to me to ask about Timmy's take home meds. He will be coming home on Ursodiol for his bilirubin (jaundice). I just picked up the compounded prescription today. Cindy told me a couple of times that we need to bring it in to have the nurses sign off on our being able to draw it up. Seriously? Not that I thought she was lying, but this just seems a little ridiculous to me. So I asked Abby. I guess it isn't optional. You can't just tell them that you have been measuring out antibiotics prescribed by the pediatrician in the past or that both you and your husband completed at least 2 years of chemistry each and have them pass you off. It seems a bit patronizing to me, but both Joanna and Abby told me I'd be surprised at how many people need help with this. I'm rooming in tomorrow night anyway so I'll take it with me then. I'm not going to balk the system, I just want my baby home safely and this is hardly something to wage war over.
Timmy nursed extremely well again tonight. Twenty-five minutes, give or take. He needed a bit of suctioning before, during and after. I wasn't able to get all of his cares in before I fed him. He started stirring around 11:45 and I suctioned him, cleaned around the stoma and went to change his diaper. He ended up pooping on the bottom of his onesie during the diaper swap and it required a third diaper. He was screaming the entire time so I opted to stop annoying him once I had him clean, feed him and worry about changing the trach ties and getting him dressed later. That seemed to work just fine for him.
Happy to say we did get it all done. Trach ties changed and washed and cute snuggly jammies put on, as far as they can go. You can see the PICC line in his right arm. It is always connected so Timmy has to go for the '80s off-the-shoulder look.
Not trying to hide it with the mask. Just turned out that way. I finally left him around 1:40am in a nice deep sleep. It really does help me sleep more easily when I can leave him like this. I know he'll be awake to eat again in a few hours, but my mind just locks into this image.
Still don't know exactly where the chin dimple came from.
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