Finding the New Normal

Nurse Michael stopped by yesterday. He's going to consult with Dr. Bianchi next week about whether or not the nurse visits are necessary. He has to get the OK from the doctor to keep the visits going because of insurance concerns. He weighed Henry at 6 lbs 1.5 ozs. Henry's pulse-ox levels weren't as high as they had been previously. They ranged from about 91% to 95%. That's not bad exactly. But when he first came home, he was consistently around 98%.

The other day at Dr. Bianch's office, the nurse measured it at 95%. It took her forever to get that because the pulse-ox device that they have wasn't meant for preemies. Frankly, I wasn't convinced that 95% was accurate. The monitor hung around 87% several times. She just took the best number given. I don't understand why medical professionals do that. For example, when they were taking my blood pressure in the hospital, it was always high until they had me lay down for 15 minutes and then took it. I thought this was a rather stupid measurement technique because I had no intentions of laying down all of the time (e.g., I had to stand up to walk to the NICU).

Both of my parents took turns with Henry yesterday. I don't think that there's really a whole lot to report on that front. I think that we all agree that my dad has the most success getting food down Henry and having it stay down. Henry didn't vomit as much as usual yesterday.

I didn't sleep last night. Jeff got most of the Prevacid down Henry. Some of it ran out again, but Jeff got more in him than I did the night before. Jeff tried to put Henry on the monitors, but they weren't picking up Henry's heart or breathing. By inspection, Henry was clearly breathing, so it was an equipment malfunction. I held him through most of the night. I got Jeff up around 4:30AM, because Henry was running out of food and I needed to pump. Then, Henry needed food and medicine, so I stayed up.

Jeff found another scorpion in the house this morning. I'm not happy about that. David, our pest control guy, came by on Wednesday. Sometimes that stirs things up for a few days after his visit. I hate scorpions, especially in the house. Yesterday, we found what might be evidence of termites in our bathroom. Yuck!

We took Henry for a walk with the dogs this morning. Instead of the Baby Bjorn, I held Henry in a sling. It was strange because Henry was at the level of my stomach. I couldn't help but thinking that he was supposed to be in my womb at about the size he is now. The last time I had held Henry for the walk that we took this morning was on the morning of April 30, the day he was born. Jeff was working, so I took the dogs for a walk that morning up our street. I can remember my vision going a little blurry on the return to our driveway. But at that time, I had no idea that I'd be delivering Henry less than 10 hours later.

I fed Henry when we got back from the walk this morning. Gave him a massage. He did really well with his massage yesterday. Today was OK. He's great with his legs, but he's tentative about his arms being touched. He has several scars from the PIC lines in his arms (his right side especially). I can't exactly blame him for not wanting to be messed with.

Around 10AM, I was ready to collapse, so Jeff took Henry while I took a nap. He weighed him in my absence. 6 lbs 2 ozs!

I got up around 2:20PM, just in time to see my dad for a little bit before he and my mom switched. Henry is with my mom now. I'm about to get some school work done. Jeff is organizing some of the huge piles of mail that we ignored while in the NICU. We are backlogged on some household duties. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, we'll manage to get the household back in some kind of order and figure out what our new "normal" is going to be.