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Not soup yet
Dec. 3rd, 2009 08:43 pmGot a phone call from my Mom this evening...
"You can't have the baby tonight..."
"Why not?"
"Because if you do, that will be three people in the hospital..." (side note-Mom doesn't know the plans for birth don't include a hospital.)
Turns out my sister in law (my half brother's wife) had a gall bladder attack and is in the hospital having her gall bladder removed.
Brother is going to be extubated in the next couple of days-they canceled the tracheostomy scheduled tomorrow, they've done a breathing trial yesterday and today and he's done well. They've reduced his sedation and pain medication, as well as the antibiotics, and even untied his hands today. He stretched them over his head when they did. Sometimes he's even responsive to his name. The current cocktail of diuretics he's on seems to be draining the fluid-Mom says he doesn't look quite as much like the Michelin Man right now. He's being fed by NG tube now, not TPN. The central line is also out. The EEG done this morning looks fine. They're starting some physical therapy soon.
I know things are improving because instead of twice daily phone calls from my sister, I'm getting occasional calls from my Mom...and she's even joking about things. When she told me about the EEG this morning, she said to me, "The neurologist told us that the EEG looked fine-but it's Zachary...he's never fine in the head!" I can stop feeling bad for saying to her, "You should have stopped at two," at the very beginning (before we knew how serious things were, when we thought that what was going on was just a little rougher than usual recovery from anesthesia and she was lightheartedly grumbling about how difficult my brother always has been. Things have improved significantly, and that's good news. We don't, of course, know about long term consequences of this whole ordeal for him, but that's a different question.
Amusing .sig file I saw today-"If you receive an email from the Department of Health telling you not to eat canned pork because of swine flue...ignore it. It's just Spam."
As for us? It's all about patience right now Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'm cranky, overtired and a little uncomfortable...the fatigue isn't helping, especially since the time of day that I'm most tired is just before Naomi takes her nap and by the time she goes down for a nap, I've gotten a second wind, which makes it very difficult to take a nap when she does. I'm not doing anything exciting to bring on labor-no eggplant Parmesan, no pineapple, nothing fantastic.
I'm also trying to enjoy this time with Naomi. Toddler cuddles are a pretty terrific thing, and I'm going to miss the days where it's just the two of us. She's amazing. Words, books, toys. I love watching her do things like put a straw into the lid of a cup-out, in, out, in-her motor skills amaze me that way. I love the way she acquires new words and ideas, and I'm afraid that I won't be as attentive to them and how they develop when I've also got a newborn to attend to. And I worry about giving her what she needs in terms of attention. I know all families with more than one child take time to adjust, and I'm sure we'll figure out what our new normal is. But to be mindful of it and perhaps a little nervous...I'm sure that's normal.
And I am thinking about the future-looking beyond this new baby that we'll welcome soon, and thinking about what I want to do besides being Mom. Still not sure. There's time for that.
"You can't have the baby tonight..."
"Why not?"
"Because if you do, that will be three people in the hospital..." (side note-Mom doesn't know the plans for birth don't include a hospital.)
Turns out my sister in law (my half brother's wife) had a gall bladder attack and is in the hospital having her gall bladder removed.
Brother is going to be extubated in the next couple of days-they canceled the tracheostomy scheduled tomorrow, they've done a breathing trial yesterday and today and he's done well. They've reduced his sedation and pain medication, as well as the antibiotics, and even untied his hands today. He stretched them over his head when they did. Sometimes he's even responsive to his name. The current cocktail of diuretics he's on seems to be draining the fluid-Mom says he doesn't look quite as much like the Michelin Man right now. He's being fed by NG tube now, not TPN. The central line is also out. The EEG done this morning looks fine. They're starting some physical therapy soon.
I know things are improving because instead of twice daily phone calls from my sister, I'm getting occasional calls from my Mom...and she's even joking about things. When she told me about the EEG this morning, she said to me, "The neurologist told us that the EEG looked fine-but it's Zachary...he's never fine in the head!" I can stop feeling bad for saying to her, "You should have stopped at two," at the very beginning (before we knew how serious things were, when we thought that what was going on was just a little rougher than usual recovery from anesthesia and she was lightheartedly grumbling about how difficult my brother always has been. Things have improved significantly, and that's good news. We don't, of course, know about long term consequences of this whole ordeal for him, but that's a different question.
Amusing .sig file I saw today-"If you receive an email from the Department of Health telling you not to eat canned pork because of swine flue...ignore it. It's just Spam."
As for us? It's all about patience right now Waiting, waiting, waiting. I'm cranky, overtired and a little uncomfortable...the fatigue isn't helping, especially since the time of day that I'm most tired is just before Naomi takes her nap and by the time she goes down for a nap, I've gotten a second wind, which makes it very difficult to take a nap when she does. I'm not doing anything exciting to bring on labor-no eggplant Parmesan, no pineapple, nothing fantastic.
I'm also trying to enjoy this time with Naomi. Toddler cuddles are a pretty terrific thing, and I'm going to miss the days where it's just the two of us. She's amazing. Words, books, toys. I love watching her do things like put a straw into the lid of a cup-out, in, out, in-her motor skills amaze me that way. I love the way she acquires new words and ideas, and I'm afraid that I won't be as attentive to them and how they develop when I've also got a newborn to attend to. And I worry about giving her what she needs in terms of attention. I know all families with more than one child take time to adjust, and I'm sure we'll figure out what our new normal is. But to be mindful of it and perhaps a little nervous...I'm sure that's normal.
And I am thinking about the future-looking beyond this new baby that we'll welcome soon, and thinking about what I want to do besides being Mom. Still not sure. There's time for that.
