Sunday, March 1, 2015

Connor has been living at McMaster for 119 days and he is now 1 week corrected gestational age. He had his hernia repair surgery on Thursday and handled everything like a champ as usual. 

On Friday morning, as I was getting ready to visit Connor for the day, the hospital called and asked me to bring my overnight bag and his car seat because I would be getting a bunk room for the night and Connor would be getting a car seat test. I was quite surprised because a) he just had surgery yesterday and we were told he wouldn't be going home for at least two weeks and b) we hadn't yet mastered 4 oral feeds in a row, which is the qualification for a parent to be able to stay in a bunk room. We ended up losing our place for the bunk room to another family at 6pm that night.

I can't rave enough about the quality of care that McMaster provides for its patients and their worried parents. The NICU has a few bunk rooms available for parents to stay in so that they can breast or bottlefeed every three hours throughout the night. Once the baby is almost ready to go home, they have "care by parent" rooms that are a bit bigger than bunk rooms and you can have your baby wheeled in in his crib and you can do your thing overnight while still having the NICU just a call button away in case of emergencies.

In order to come home, Connor needs to be able to master 8 oral feeds in a row. So far we are at 7. Sooooo close. The lactation consultant says it normally takes a baby with his age and history 4 weeks to get to this stage and we have only been practicing for 10 days. Connor also needs to pass his car seat test to be discharged. The test is 90 minutes and he has to sit in the seat the whole time without having a desat or bradycardia episode. He is having significantly less episodes but still has the occasional one after a feed, likely due to reflux. He also has another follow-up eye exam on Tuesday evening. 

I am living at the hospital now, probably until he comes home, which I'm hoping will be very soon! I have been spending the very little spare time I have in the hospital's Ronald McDonald Family Room. This is such a comforting place to go. They have a few TVs, cozy couches and chairs, a kitchenette and computer. They serve free coffee, tea and snacks all day and have movies, books, magazines and games to help pass the time. All of it is based on donations.

We have reached the part of our journey that our social worker warned us about. I'm so excited to bring him home and starting to get intensely frustrated with every day that passes and we are still in the hospital because he now looks and acts like a normal, healthy baby that should be ready to come home. On the other hand, I am terrified of bringing him home with no monitors to watch his heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen saturation and no nurses to answer questions or ease anxieties.

As angry as I've ever seen him! Starving from being withheld food prior to surgery. :(

On our way to surgery.

One hour post-op!

Chillin' with Grandma.

Morning stretches! :)