Lucky Day 13

Life in Patrick land is becoming more of the same as the days move forward. Each day Christy and I are up about every two hours ensuring that Patrick has enough food to eat. Ok, I just clean the dishes, Christy is the one doing the heavy lifting for the food preparations. So generally, we get up at 3AM and 7AM, and then it's trying to pump every three hours after that all day long. About the time you clean all the parts, and pick up, it's time to begin again. After we get done with the 9AM round we try and make a trip to the hospital which will take us any where from 3-5 hours.



The trip into the NICU is an adventure the first few times you go. First you visit the locker-room to put away your coats and bags, then it's off to the hand washing room. They tell you to sing Happy Birthday to yourself two times thus ensuring that you have washed your hands (up to your elbows) for enough time.

After this, you check in at reception filling out an affidavit attesting to the fact that you haven't had a cough or sniffle in the past 3,425 hours.

They will call back to your room to ensure that there isn't a procedure going on at the time, and then the golden gates of the NICU are opened for you. You go through the double doors, and then through another set of doors into the inner-sanctum. Immediately you are greeted with a million buzzes, hums, and beeps. Each beep is a different machine, who's manufacturer felt as though their alarm was the most important. Each one is a little bit different and has a slightly more/less obnoxious sound. After just 13 days of being there, we have already started to tune this cacophony out of our vocabulary. You walk through one of the large rooms full of babies, turn the corner and there he is. Your child.



You are immediately filled with excitement to see what today will bring. Will it be a good visit, or one filled with tough news to hear. Generally we have found Patrick just as he is pictured above, with his hands over his head and asleep. This is, ironically, how I find Little Tiger much of my days as well. Even though we have had a reasonable run at it, the anxiety right before you see him is intolerable.

Then one of the nurses will come over almost immediately to give you a status check on the little fella, filling in all the details about his night or the remainder of his day. They will tell you what's in store for him and when he will need his temperature taken, diaper changed, run in the park, or other various chores performed. So we hand over the milk that has literally taken Christy all day and night to procure, and then our visit with Patrick begins. About every other day a doctor will stop by and visit with us to give their version of what is going on.

Patrick continues to do well. He still has his PICC line in, and is taking some of the caffeine to help his breathing along. This portion seems to have done him well, as he hasn't had another apena spell for all of last week. He did spit up a little bit, and even though you may have a baby that spits up all the time, with a gavage tube in they expect that he shouldn't do this. Thus they backed off his food supply a little bit (from 3.6mL/hour to 3.0mL/hour). His weight is up each day. Patrick was 3 pounds 7 ounces at birth, dropped down to 3 pounds 1 ounce, and yesterday weighed in at 3 pounds 8.8 ounces. This is the first day we have seen him above his original weight.

Once we decide that it's time to leave the majority of the day has usually passed us by, and we head home to start the process over again for the next day, and look forward to seeing him again.

-Big Fat Panda