The NICU Graduate Picnic

On Thursday afternoon, we took Henry to the Pima County Health Department for his flu shot. His pediatrician's office doesn't offer the preservative free flu shot. Some people claim that all infant shots are preservative free, but they are wrong, operating under some serious misunderstandings of the reality of vaccines. So off to the health department we went. Last year, we were pleased with the operation. Child vaccination clinics are offered on Thursday afternoons/evenings. Last year, we went right at 1PM when the clinic started. It was an efficient operation. This year, we arrived after 3PM. It was jam packed solid with people. Oy vey! Some teenagers with what I'd call alternative hair styles were very taken with Henry and made faces at him to make him laugh. This was good because we were holding him, which was making him mad. He wanted to run around, which is the last thing we wanted him to do. Run around the health department...I think not. It took awhile, but once we got into the exam room, the nurse (or whatever the title was of the person sticking the shot) had Henry sit on Jeff's lap sideways so that he was facing me. She stuck him in his left upper arm. He turned to watch her as she drove the needle into his arm and he didn't flinch. Not a peep. OK. Most people who probably say, "Wow, what a brave little boy! How wonderful!" But it isn't really that great a thing. Henry has a very high pain threshold, which isn't uncommon in preemies, and that can actually be problematic because pain actually teaches us important lessons of what to avoid. There is some empirical evidence that suggests that the preemie brain gets rewired because it has faced stimulation (e.g., needles in the arms, legs, heels) too early. I too have a much higher pain threshold than many, but I don't think that it is comes close to Henry's. Sigh.

After the flu shot, I headed to school because I was evaluating one of our graduate student's teaching performance. Then, I sped off to the Northwest side of town for a dinner with six scholars (three U.S., three German) and their organizers from the Transatlantic Academy who are in-town studying immigration issues. My mom was one of the main speakers at the dinner. Long story short, I didn't get home until after midnight. Came home to find the house in absolute disarray. You know those television ads where the mom gets sick, so the dad takes over, and once the mom has recovered by taking NiQuil, she walks into the kitchen to find the place an absolute disaster. Well, my house could have been in that ad. I found Jeff and Henry sound asleep in bed.

Jeff took Henry to the mall after the flu shot. They went home. Had dinner. Or at least left food around the kitchen. Then, the boys decided to take apart the living room and make a fort/slide out of the couch cushions.

Here's what I missed:


On Friday, I had a colloquium to attend at school (my mom was the speaker), so I didn't get home until after Shirley had left. Jeff said that they played with the basket ball. Henry sat on Shirley's lap, and she showed him how to throw the ball to Jeff. Jeff was again amazed. Shirley has the touch. Henry doesn't let anyone else manipulate his hands without protest.

We played with Henry. Then, Grammy, who hadn't seen Henry in a couple days, picked Henry up and took him to her place. This was in the late afternoon. After Jeff and I got some stuff done and walked the dogs, we went to Grammy and Grandpa's house. Grandpa was a bit surprised because during a diaper change, Henry said a new word: "penis." All five of us went to dinner at Swenson's. Henry tried some of Grammy's strawberry milkshake. Grammy has been dying to give Henry dessert for the longest time. We said OK, but not very much, because it has cow's milk in it. We figured that it would be a test. No more milk products, however, for a couple days. We have to make sure that his output is alright. He liked the milk shake. Had some hamburger. He was a very tired boy, however, at the end of the meal.

The big event today (Saturday) was the NICU Graduate Picnic at Reid Park. We saw several of Henry's nurses: Lisa (nurse practitioner), Penny (specializes in development), Jenny (helped out immensely one night when "the traveling nurse" was assigned to Henry and couldn't handle her job assignment; we greatly appreciated Jenny's help that night b/c she stepped in when care was needed), Carol (also does administrative work), Karin (does administrative work and rotations), and Holly (evening primary nurse).


After assessing Lisa for about 5 seconds, Henry let her hold him. That's pretty unusual for him. It has happened with a couple people before, but he usually likes to assess people for about 20-30 minutes. He liked her. Lisa was one of the first people that I remember in the NICU. I thought she was a doctor at first. She is a nurse practitioner (NPs) , which basically means that she does some extra procedures that the RNs don't do (e.g., PIC lines). The NPs basically have the knowledge the doctors and the knowledge and interpersonal skills of the RNs. As a group, they are outstanding communicators. Jeff and I have nothing but utmost admiration for the NPs. During Henry's first week in the NICU, Lisa had the task of having to tell me that Jeff and I needed to indicate at times whether or not the medical staff were intervening too much in assisting in Henry's survival. It takes a special person to have the skill to broach tactfully that part of the NICU experience when one has had a micropreemie b/c survival isn't the only issue; quality of life is an issue too. Anyway, it was very nice to see her.

Jenny was so sweet to us. She told us that she thought about us often. I've already mentioned above how much we appreciated Jenny when she stepped in during a not-so-great nurse experience one of the evenings.

I've talked about Holly dozens of times before, so I'm sure that readers of this blog already know that Holly was one of Henry's primary nurses on the night shift. At the picnic, she set up some games for the kids. One involved beach balls being used as bowling pins. The pins were made of NICU bottles filled with water. Henry kept grabbing the NICU bottles, shaking them, and running around with them. Holly was exceedingly generous as always. She gave Henry several fun toys to take home (e.g., beach ball, goggles, slip-n-slide, etc.).

Henry played on the playground equipment. A boy named Atticus who is almost 2 was so kind as to not trample over Henry when Henry got in his way on the equipment. He patted Henry on the back, which was sweet. I let Henry loose in the jumping castle. He's too short to go on the one at Funtastics, where they require a 36" height. Jeff was a bit hesitant to let Henry loose in the jumping castle and told me that if Henry got stuck (e.g., wedged in the back), I was going to fetch him. The parents of a girl, who I guess was about 4-5 years old, kept telling her to stay away from Henry. I think that they thought she was going to fall on him. I wasn't particularly worried about him. He's been knocked over several times by Roger's derriere and Roger probably weighs 40 lbs more than the little girl did. She was disappointed b/c I think that she found Henry cute. She actually seemed to be a well-coordinator and controlled little lady. Henry had a very good time on the jumping castle. Hoping that Dada will eventually concede to us getting a smaller one for the living room.

After the picnic, we went to the zoo. Henry relaxed in the stroller while drinking a cold bot. The weather was nice. It wasn't too crowded. And the animals were out and about. The jaguar were actually moving. We were impressed last time because they were in the front of their cage, lounging in the sunlight. They usually hide in the back. Today, one was pacing near the side of the cage. I think that he saw a bird or something in the bamboo. The other one walked up a tree trunk and hung out at the top in a most unmajestic fashion. It was hilarious. As we watched the jaguar, a little girl of about 6 was smiling at Henry. She tickled to him a couple times, and he grinned back at her.









It was feeding time for the giraffes by the time we got to their pen. Henry and I bought two biscuits. We were the first to fed one of the female giraffes. She took the biscuit right out of my hand before I was expecting it. I gave the second one to Henry who placed it right on her tongue all by himself. We visited an area where they have peacocks wandering around. Henry was enthralled with a white peacock and started chasing it, so Jeff had to hold him back. Jeff didn't think that the white peacock really wanted a hug.

The zoo had a lot of Halloween decorations up. Henry was fascinated with Yoda. Funny because we were thinking of dressing him up in a Yoda costume for Halloween.






At the end of our visit, Henry played in the pumpkin patch. But alas, the pumpkins were too heavy to carry.










He then went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to have chicken Florentine for dinner. The grandparents brought him back to our place around 8:15PM. We played and played. Henry had fun wrestling with me on the bed while Dada pet Marley. Henry was giggling loudly when I tickled him. We also played a game of "Where's Mommy?" I'd "hide" under his blanket. Jeff would say "Where's Mommy?" Then, Henry would pull the blanket off me, laugh, and dive into me. Then, we'd do it again and again and again. We later went to the living room, where I read from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" while Henry played on his couch cushion slide. He and Jeff headed to bed around 10:15PM or so.