Good morning guys! I hope everyone has been having a great weekend. Were still hanging out at the hospital, but should probably be home this afternoon.
It had been a quiet weekend until last night. We were the only baby here. At about 2am, 2 others came in and one was an emergency c section. They brought dd in to us and said they didn't have enough people to watch her in the nursery for a few hours. It was loud and chaotic for a while... I was saying a few prayers and hope everything turned out well.
I saw some pretty scary stuff during our 10 days in the NICU. The unit consists of 3 pods - each with 2 single rooms and 2 double rooms. We had a double room that we shared with some neurotic first time parents for the first 3 days. Their baby was all healed up from whatever he had, but the parents didn't want to go home yet - I think they liked the safety net of the docs & nurses always there.
The room was ours for another few days, then a new roommate came in, but only for a few hours. Docs looked him up and down and recommended transferring him to a Chicago hospital that had a specialized surgeon. Mom just had a C-section, dad ran home to grab some things then followed the ambulance down. I said some heavy duty prayers for that family.
Finally, the night we were getting ready to leave, the nurses moved the boy from the single room next to us into our room. They had to prep the private room for potential preemie that the nurses describe as "barely viable" if he were to be born. Docs were doing all they could to stop mom's labor but they had to be ready up there just in case. Again, lots of prayers going up for that family.
But through all of this, I was constantly impressed by the nursing staff in the NICU. They average 25 of experience. The most tenured had close to 40. These ladies love what they do and do an awesome job at it. Can't say enough good things about them. You need to be a special breed to do that job day in and day out.
Andy, hang in there... You'll be out soon. Similar thing happened with my first child (That's right - Bayley who turned 10 last week). She was in a semi-private room (2 beds). The first bed was vacant the first night, but the next night an Italian woman came in with her first child. That woulda been ok, but she had about 50 visitors in the room, hallways, ward, etc.... They brought in trays of catered food. They literally had a party in the hospital. NOT THE PLACE!
Had to tell the way overly passive nurses to clear the place, as my DW just had a C-section, and Bayley wasn't "latching" properly. Was a very stressful time for us, and this chaos in the next bed was not helping.
We have private birthing suites, then about after a few hours, you're taken to the postpartum rooms which are private, but allow for visitors.
There is also a waiting room down the hall that was taken over by a very large family about half way through our stay. They did basically the same thing - brought in trays of food and set up camp. But that's a much better place than in a semi-private room. Yikes!
Wish I could. I work from home so I have to be home to work. Or do I? Maybe I can work from my home away from home. Too bad the Hawaii/
Disneyland trip is eating over a year's worth of points. Once the Pirate Princess is at Pirate school this fall, I plan on doing some traveling. Have friends around the country and in Europe that will let me mooch off of them (let me know if there are any other takers out there). And of course occasional trips to the Keys. Yea, my life sucks. But considering last year at this time I was barely getting around on a walker, I will take it.
You can crash in my guest room anytime you want.
Well, it's more of a basement living room/play room with a fold out couch. And they're usually a mess of naked Barbie dolls and partially decapitated action figures. But if you can avoid the nightmares from that, you're welcome too it.
Shall I pencil you in for next January?
Back from our week at the World. We had a great time but like always, we didn't want to leave. Looking forward to our next trip, whenever that will be.
Welcome Home!
Stuck inside because of the rain. Going through dive photos to hang on the wall. Thought I would post a few from Roatan.
Boy meets beer. Boy drinks beer. Boy meets another beer.
I've heard that one before.
Yeah, Tim, but yours usually goes like this:
Boy meets beer. Boy drinks beer. In the shower.
Tim, now is your time to kick his butt training wise. He is sleep deprived and basically doesn't know where he is right now. Just a helpful hint.
He's usually only getting up twice at night. But he does have a knack of making the last one about 45 minutes before my alarm goes of, which is a nice little extra kick to the Beverly every morning.
Hope everyone's off to a good star of the workweek. 
