Dane has done really well after his surgery, even with Dawn picking on him and calling him Cindy Lou Who because his swelling made him look like a Who from Whoville for a couple of days. His nose is healing well and he is more and more realizing he can breathe normally now.
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| Having an everything bagel with cream cheese in the hospital Einstein's Bagels while we visit her little brother |
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| Andrew in the pediatric surgery waiting room after we heard Dane came through surgery, waiting for him to come out of anesthesia |
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| Sleeping off his anesthesia, really swollen nose! |
One of the biggest hurdles we have to jump now is having him learn to drink from a bottle. He has been on a feeding tube for the past 7 weeks and has never had to use his suck, breathe, swallow reflex. It is a slow process! At first it seemed like he caught on immediately, but then we would have setbacks to where he would drink only a few cc's (mL)when he would normally take in around 25. The goal is to take all 61 mL at every feeding and then he can come home. The stitches in the roof of his mouth and his feeding tube don't help matters, but he gets the stitches and nasal stents out on Thursday so hopefully he makes really rapid progress then!
It is getting harder and harder to leave him now, I am starting to cry every time I go again. He's getting chunky at 7 lbs 4 oz, he's beautiful and so healthy that it feels wrong to leave him there now. Not that it ever felt right in the first place, but when he was preterm it was different, he was so fragile and small that we knew he needed to be there, and that was the only thing that made leaving tolerable. But on his due date, Jan. 2nd, I thought all day about what it would have been like if everything went according to plan. It was a mourning of sorts. I ended that day being grateful that we had him at all, and that he made it through those first few hours when the doctors didn't know whether he would pull through or not. And I look forward to his homecoming.
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| Our beautiful baby |
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| Monkey feet |
I'm so proud of you Dane!!! Watching you take a bottle was such a sweet thing for me. Keep eating and hurry and get home. Love and Hugs!! Martha
ReplyDeleteDonna - Just catching up on your blog - it is beautifully written and reminds me so much of when our first-born, Oliver, was in the NICU. He was "only" there for 5 days and it was the longest 5 days of my life. Now, he is almost 5 years old and perfectly healthy, but I can still remember the fear, hope, anger, uncertainty, guilt, etc., as if it were yesterday. You and your family are in my prayers, and I will be hoping for a speedy recovery so that Dane can come home soon! Hang in there!
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