Posted in Noah Updates
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Not much newsworthy stuff has been going on here lately - and we are tickled pink by that fact! Noah is settling in better at home over the last few days and seems to be happier and more active. He is a generally happy baby by default but his first few days home after a hospitalization are difficult for some reason. Jeff and I were talking about the fact that he has had 8 hospitalizations in less than 8 months. One was more than 6 weeks, one was more than 3 weeks, and 5 others were more than a week - so home really probably feels like the place that he visits sometimes rather than the place where he really belongs. His broviac continues to be difficult for him. I need to correct a miscommunication of mine - I mentioned that there was initially a risk that the line would affect his right arm, and this gave the impression that the line was IN his arm. It isn't, and it won't ever be. Broviacs are lines that must go right into the big circulatory pipelines, so they generally exit near the heart/chest area. Noah's current broviac exits in his upper right chest almost going around the side of his rib cage so that it is nearly under his arm when his arm is down. The other incision (there are always two incisions, one of which will close up, the other of which is where the line exits the body) is up on the top of his right shoulder. It is healing but still has steri-strips on it. This broviac is considerably larger in diameter and length than his other ones. It is held in place with a cuff under the skin and several stitches which will stay in place until the line is removed. I think that the larger diameter, cuff, and stitched area just hurt Noah as he frequently cries and rubs the area. Because the length is greater, we have to loop the line around in two circles when we secure it under his dressing. Again, this is a little more irritating for Noah. The dressing is large (covers more than half of his chest) and it is completely adhesive. We are having to stay on our toes to protect these dressings. Because the line bothers Noah, if it starts hurting when he is getting dressed/undressed, he will take the opportunity to really yank those loops through the dressing. The other day he swooped down with his little hand and yanked almost the entire dressing off in one lightening-fast grab. I almost had a cardiac event. I grabbed some tape (we have to keep rolls of tape everywhere!) and secured the area, then called the nurse. Mr. Smarty Pants thought he had won, but he didn't realize that his only prize was a dressing change. He HATES dressing changes and sobs in obvious discomfort and terror the entire time. I just wish he could understand the whole cause and effect thing!! This time we placed a smaller dressing right over the insertion site where the tube leaves the chest, then looped the line and placed the large dressing on top. In theory, this will offer a second line of defense. Noah's nurse also ordered a selection of other dressing types for us to look at and try in hopes of finding the most secure possible combination. Another thing we are looking into is getting some small pads of silver (not a typo) to place directly on the insertion site at dressing changes. The silver offers a lot of protection from infection. Noah's nurse feels that this would be a very good thing for Noah given his history of frequent line infections. Other than the broviac issues, Noah seems to be very stable - certainly no worse, which is great. He is crawling several feet at a time which is unbearably cute. His color is SO much better. I think that the second transfusion was just what he needed. His hemoglobin down a little over the last week, but is still nice and normal. This must make Noah feel so much better!! He is still working on those four molars but seems to be past the worst of them. He is still very happy to eat bits of finger food a couple of times a day, but clearly isn't really digesting the food well so I don't know if there is any nutritional benefit to it. He gets great satisfaction and joy from the process which is good enough for us. Lots of you have been asking about Baby Abigail and I. I just can't tell you how good I feel. This is by far my easiest pregnancy. My blood sugar is under great control thanks to my insulin pump. I truly don't feel pregnant at all (those of you who know me are probably laughing as I certainly LOOK pregnant!) and generally don't think about being pregnant except when I am getting all of those wonderful baby kicks and wiggles . . . then I sort of think, "Oh, right . . . I'm having a baby in two months or so . . ." Baby Abigail is very, very active. I'm at the point where "Watching Mommy's Tummy Move" is becoming a favorite family activity (who needs TV??) and the dc have been able to feel kicks as well as little baby parts pressing out. I'm just so thankful that I feel so good and that the baby is going so well, but I often feel really guilty for forgetting that I am pregnant. I'm *doing* the right things in terms of managing my blood sugar and taking my vitamins, but I don't seem to be *feeling* the right things. By this point I am usually focusing so much on the baby and so full of anticipation all day long, but it seems that all of my meager mental reserves and emotional reserves are focused elsewhere this time. When I DO actually stop and think about the baby, I am as happy and excited as I can be - it just doesn't happen often or for very long. I think that another factor may be that I am an experienced pregnant mom. I don't need to read pregnancy books or go to birth classes. I'm not having a shower or doing much shopping. I'm not living at the doctor's office like I did with Noah. All of this means that this pregnancy is very low-maintenance. Every now and then my mom or I will buy some tiny pink thing (sorry Jeff!) and I do get excited when I see them. I've been keeping the little pink things in a drawer in my dresser, and yesterday when I reorganized Noah's dresser I emptied out a drawer and put the pink things in there. It was a joy to take everything out and refold it and admire it all - but it still seems sort of surreal. I hope this isn't too odd and rambly LOL. I am excited and thankful and know that I will be so in love with this little girl when she comes, but it bothers me that the whole thing doesn't seem real yet. Noah's pregnancy was so hard and in many ways scary. I couldn't bring myself to even take the tags off his clothes to wash them because I wasn't sure he would survive. I also couldn't bring myself to shop for him. I was hoping to be able to just cherish and enjoy this pregnancy, especially since there are no concerns at all about the baby's health or my health. We got our blankets made for the Ukrainian mission. Hannah was blessed to be able to go to the mission warehouse all day Wednesday to sort and pack items. She enjoyed it so much and hopes to go back soon. She brought home a children's tract written in . . . well, the language spoken in Ukraine. We have all enjoyed looking at it. We have also recently been made aware of a local family with a special needs child. Dad is in prison and this family is living in the most impoverished circumstances imaginable. The children decided to give one of the blankets to this little girl who had no warm things at all. We also were blessed to realize that the little girl wears the size that Sarah wore last winter. We boxed up all of Sarah's outgrown warm things for her and the children each came to me with toys of theirs that they wanted to give the child. They also asked to go to the store to buy some food for the family, which of course we did. Nothing much else is going on here right now. Jeff wants to go back to Skytop Orchard to get more apples since I canned them all. I made some apple pies Wednesday and only have one jar of apple pie filling left. Apparently this constitutes a food crisis that MUST be resolved immediately LOL. I don't mind a bit. We all love going to Skytop. I derive great satisfaction from canning and baking and freezing (and Jeff derives great satisfaction from eating the fruit of my labors) so I guess this constitutes a win-win situation. Our big plans for the weekend involved sorting and decluttering. Why don't things just stay decluttered?? I promise that Legos, books, and laundry all multiply at night. We have rain-gutter book shelves all down the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Right before Noah got so sick I decluttered and tidied the shelves. I can't have bought more than 10 or 15 books since then - so why are the shelves overflowing?? We need to go through the boy's summer clothes and decide what is worth packing up and keeping, go through the bookshelves to thin the ranks, and help the dc go through the playroom. (ugh) A couple of times a year we send the dc into the playroom one at a time to choose their favorite toy. A tub of Thomas or Legos or Little People counts as one toy. Once each child has brought a toy out, we send them in one by one again to choose again, and repeat about five times per child or so. They are each then given a plastic box a bit larger than a shoebox to fill with any remaining special items like little party favors or bouncy balls or cards and letters. Jeff and I do a child-free recon of the playroom at this point in case we think they have overlooked something really important, then we box up most of what is left to give away. This might sound harsh, but five or six sets of toys each for six children (Hannah says she doesn't play with toys LOL) is enough to fill a playroom pretty well. They have some larger items like a toy kitchen with all of the toy food/pots/plates that would count as one item. We all dust and mop and wash windows, then put all of the toys back. This time I am determined to take pictures and post them on the wall so the dc can see how the room "should" look. It is funny how much more they enjoy the playroom when there aren't as many toys in there. Three of the dc have birthdays in Decmeber, then of course there is Christmas, so it is important to do this sorting out of outgrown toys in November to allow them to put away and enjoy their new things. We are also hoping to rearrange the playroom to make a little nursery corner for Noah. His little crib and dresser/changing table have been in our room since he was born. We need to move him across the hall to the playroom where he can still be just a few feet away from our room, but there will be room freed up to put the bassinet in our room for Abigail. Of course the girls want us to just put Noah in their room (Hannah says skip the crib because she wants to sleep with him!), but their room is the farthest from ours and we need to be closer than that. We gave away our ancient glider rocker that we bought when I was pregnant with Hannah, because we didn't think we had room and Noah didn't like to be rocked. Well, thanks to all of these hospital stays in rooms equipped with rockers, he LOVES to be rocked to sleep. We are thinking about getting an inexpensive glider rocker to put in the family room or in Noah's corner of the playroom so that Noah can start getting rocked by Daddy at bedtime some nights. I felt like such a nitwit for suggesting that we give away that rocker to Salvation Army, only to come back two months later and ask if we could buy one! Honestly, though, Jeff pointed out that it was getting very shabby and worn - 15 years and 7 babies has got to be about the maximum life expectancy for a rocking chair. I have rambled enough and my coffee is finished LOL so I need to run. Still trying to find time to post those pictures! Love, Kate |
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Posted by Belinda in Alabama
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