Moving on up

Traditional team Britton picture.

Owen had a better day today. We finally have a med schedule that seems to be working. They are also letting him eat which has made all the difference in the world. On a very positive note Owen has been eating everything from a bottle. This has not happened in months which is awesome for us to see. Owen prior to surgery has been getting all of his nutrition via NG tube(tube in his nose), and bonus random breastfeeding sessions mostly at night. We are not getting our hopes up on this but this is a welcomed surprise. Chelsea stayed with him last night and there was no sleep for the both of them. Owen whined all night in pain and hunger but they could not feed him. Pain control was a problem with trying to catch up to it. He has a high tolerance to pain meds because he has had so many in his day.

Today he has been just hanging out in bed. We have him sitting up in bed all layed out and looks like he is sitting in a custom lazy boy. He has not been very interactive with us. He will stare at us and put his arms out to pick him up but we can't. It is so hard to not pick him up. He will cry and give you that look. It will melt anyones heart. Hopefully in the next few days we will be able to hold him. He has been watching a lot of TV today. I have spent most of the day with him so we have watched non stop ESPN. He will just zone in on the TV and nothing will bother him. Under these circumstances he can watch as much as he wants. His labs have all been looking okay and getting a lot of lasix today to get all of the fluid off of him. He is not nearly as swollen as he was with his last surgery. His Potassium has been a little low, but no problems replacing it. He is getting ready to get a blood transfusion. This will help his sats but it is also because they have to draw so much blood from him all the time.

Chelsea left around 1030 and went to Rons. She said she felt like a zombie wandering from the parking garage to Rons. Since I normally drive I started to give her directions but she stopped me promptly, as she was too tired to remember them. She said later she could drive there in her sleep, had no problems at all.

Rich came over to visit Owen today. It was good to see him. They went out to a quick dinner for a belated birthday dinner for Rich. They went to Koo, a sushi restaurant that we tried to go to multiple times last time we were here, but they were always closed or too busy. Chelsea won't stop talking about the salmon-asparagus roll she inhaled.

And now for the belated installments of the Britton blog....

The Cashier

I have been eating at the cafteria quite a bit, as Chels gets breastfeeding mom trays. So, there is the same cashier, who is usually the only one there. When most people give you change, the change is simply dropped into your extended hand. But this rather nice gentlemen finds it apppropiate to first cup the bottom of my hand with his left hand and hold it while he places the change in with his other hand then holds my hand longer than what is considered professional. There is also an uncomfortable lean in that he does as well that invades my personal space. I have now stopped paying with cash so that I can avoid this situation.

Owen's Pre-op Yoga Moves (Written by Chels)

I have been working with Owen with his physical development. Every morning at home I put him on his stomach while I change his feed bag, heat his feed, get Owen's meds ready, get my pump stuff ready and make some tea:). This morning routine takes about 15minutes, so Owen gets a lot of tummy time. He has progressed so well, doing backward crawling, and massive pivoting around in circles. He also did one from sitting to crawl position the night before we left to come down here. When crawling he would always lay flat and take breaks. Well, here, on Oxygen, it was like he had super power for crawling! He did a full push up (plank), pushed up even more with his tush in the air (downward dog), and even did a somersault from a sitting to crawling to rolling position (ok that one was an accident). I guess if your kid is getting a little more oxygen than normal, he can maneuver around a little better...Probably should have been on some oxygen the last few weeks at home, but whatcha gonna do? Hopefully his increased sats will continue to fuel his physical development.