Operation Crib: A night in the life of an infant

So last night, I decided to try operation crib full force again. I let him zonk out, put him in, and he slept fine for about 2.5 hours. Alas, he zonked out almost 2 hours before Boi got home, and I really didn't manage to nap or be productive during that time. After that, the struggle began. 115, up, fed him, made sure to get a good burp out of him, moved the footrest next to his crib to soothe him to sleep, but then he spat up a few times after that, got another good burp out of him... and around 230 he finally was asleep.

Crawled back into bed, but I'm a horrible sleeper and I maybe slept 15 minutes before 330ish and he was up and crying again. Went in, he was a poopin' so I held him for awhile for him to stop, changed him, fed him, burped him, and  this time I swaddled him to see if that would help. He fought it for awhile, but fell asleep again like by 430. Was a little less grunty... that or I fell asleep sooner, but before 6 he was up again. Rinse and repeat, but this time... he wouldn't close his eyes. And freaked out if I didn't have my face within view. Decided, ok well if he just wants to see me he can just come to bed with me now. So, 7amish we crawled into bed... but now he wanted to be rocked and see me. Didn't want to lay on my chest either or in the crook of my arm. Thought maybe he didn't eat enough, fed him again, but he kept it up.

Boi was awake thanks to all his crying by now, so I took him down to the couch. But now he was overtired and not productive awake, so we walked and walked and walked. Finally got him to rest quietly on me on the couch and I dozed off. Boi came down around 9 shortly after he calmed down, took him, changed him, and this time Peanut allowed the swing to put him asleep, while I napped restlessly till about 11. Boi made lunch, I fed him again, and thanks to his morning fit, zonked out and I put him back in the crib. I crawled into bed and Boi put up the gate so the cats couldn't bother us. Around 230 Peanut was getting too restless to sleep through, we got up.

Now I just got him to sleep... but now I have to wake him up to feed him because K&B are in town and we're going out to dinner. Oh well! Better go do that! He should hopefully fall back asleep in the car regardless!

-cut to this evening-

Mom watched and played with him this evening while I nursed a headache and exhaustion on her couch. Fortunately it's gone now, and I just fed him to go to bed, alas I see eyes. EYES? Kid, you were just awake for a few hours, now is the time to sleep! Ah well... wish us luck. At least he's calm so he should go to sleep soon.

Sleep is for the Weak!

Ok, we're trying the crib tonight. I don't know that it's going to help a whole lot, but maybe it will be great. I barely slept again last night, we ended up napping till after 11 just to try to get the required amount of sleep in short bursts. We tried a few more things last night to stop his mid night thrashing and grunting, but it didn't help.  So I guess maybe if he can't sense me, maybe that will alleviate some of it. Like we have discovered that I can't give him a bottle, and he won't take a bottle if I'm around. Maybe it's a little of that. Which I don't entirely buy because he will sleep like a rock on my chest. But we'll see. A few nights isn't going to hurt anyone, and Boi doesn't work tomorrow so if it's more of the same, so be it.

Tomorrow he's getting professional pics taken, thanks to K and her family (I love you guys and many hugs). Kinda early, but we can handle it! Especially if we manage to get some good sleep.

We had some more firsts today, we had a few more coos (specifically an uUuu that melted my heart) and we tried on cloth diapers for the first time. The prefolds were huge, but we got on a bumgenious pocket dipe on at the smallest setting. Contained his pee just fine! So yay! We saved a sposie dipe already! Look at how cute he is with that green on his bottom :) And those giraffe leggings that definitely were too big :) He's so stylish! 

Then after a bath (mmm he smells fresh again!), we went on the activity mat, and he was staring at the yellow toy pretty hard, and kept trying to swing his far arm over to it, so I pushed him closer to it and after a few more tries, wham, he hit it :D I'm impressed, I figured it'd be a week or two before he actually hit it seemingly on purpose! Right now he's supposed to be just mainly tracking items with his eyes, but he's been doing that forever <3

Then after some more tummy time, just for fun I grabbed his bumbo chair. Boi plopped him in. And he sat there like a champ (note the chair supports the back of his head, angled slightly backwards and I was there for the moment his head started to look too unsteady)! He seemed to like it too! Not to mention he looks kinda like a peanut in that pic. Though rainbows... elephants... future politician in the making? I hope not! Astronaut!

So that was today! I also made chili today, mmm healthy food, and it was I think my first real cooking? Too bad all we have are unhealthy snacks. Tomorrow I'm going to (try to) get some more healthy foods in the house. Only a week and a half or so until my restrictions are lifted and I can start to exercise a bit.

Strange how I can't wait. Maybe more so I can't wait to feel good enough to do it. Though this last weekend I've progressed to not always noticing my incision. Pro yo. Can't wait till I rarely notice it!

The dude is now asleep. Feed him in a half hour and then hopefully we'll all hit the hay. :D Wish us luck!

One Month :)

Peanut is one month old today! Doo dah! Doo dah! Peanut is one month old today, oh the doo dah day! Peanut celebrated this morning by fussing through a chunk of the night, but then getting breakfast with Grandma and Auntie K. He dressed up for the occasion in a fancy, but still way too big for him, train vest and outfit. Innit he a cutie?

We attempted a nap... or three in his crib. He'd go down for a few minutes just fine, but then wake up screaming :( So right now he's sleeping between my  feet, not really great, he keeps fussing in his sleep, but better than he was upstairs. We were thinking in the next few days if we can get a good nap out of him to try him sleeping in the crib, as he's a bit of a loud sleeper. So maybe if he'd sleep longer if I didn't eventually wake him up just because he was keeping me awake. I dunno, we'll see how this week goes. Boi has ... two more weeks of vacation I think? It would be nice if we were sleeping a bit better for when he has to work 5 days all the time again.

Auntie K got him an activity mat! He's supposed to start working on tracking things with his eyes and experimenting with his hands. He's hit the toys once so far when he sneezed, and a few times with me helping him. We'll keep trying it every day and see how he grows. He's already great a tracking things with his eyes. He is getting lazy about progressing his neck muscles though, his next awake period we'll work on that.

His spitup is getting worse too. Just things to keep an eye on. More fussing, more spitup, maybe it's just him getting older, maybe it's something else. I do think I changed my first completely poop free diaper this afternoon though (everyone loves the diaper talk). I now have high hopes that he will someday be more regulated! Yay for growth!

The last few days have been great, having Auntie K here, my Aunt M and Uncles, we finally got a few nice-ish family pics. We ended up both wearing maroon, unplanned but it worked out well. Poor little boy, it was about 50 degrees, we had him all bundled up then exposed him for the pictures in Mom and Dad's backyard. At least he was awake, right?

I had him propped up on my boppy pillow after his last feeding to try to prevent more spitup, and I was sitting there and decided to try to get him to smile. And he was! Several times I'd give him a great big smile, kissed his chubby cheeks, tickle his neck rolls, and he'd give me a grin. I called Boi over, but then we only got a tiny smile out of him. Smiling is hard work! He is also cooing now, not sure if it's socially or randomly, but definite new sounds.

We're taking weekly pictures, and I'm working on a monthly face pic. I have a good idea of how I want to do it, but not 100% there yet. We still have 8ish hours to figure it out.

Two new albums, one just documenting all his outfits (that we remember to take pictures of) :
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112061147386819194738/albums/5665216703437019505?hl=en

And his weekly growth pictures:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112061147386819194738/albums/5667530369841915505?hl=en 

And finally, a video!

Sister is home!

Yay, my sister and her bf flew home yesterday! AND she says she wants to change a diaper, score! Though I have to say, for being a SAHM, I have it pretty easy on the diaper front. A) Boi is totally cool about changing him when he's home, so I only change 1 or 2 when he is and B) Peanut is usually pretty relaxed about chilling out in a nice moist diaper. So sometimes I just go to feed him, forget to change him first, and he zonks out... and I let him sleep. I feel a little bad since he's pretty much still always pooping, but if he doesn't care, then hey. Occasionally going an extra few hours isn't the end of the world. He's going to do that when he starts sleeping through the night (sttn) right? Which will totally be soon.

Last night was waaaaaay better than the last two. And by way better, I mean, that last stretch he slept 3.5 hours. I woke up, and I'm used to the last stretch lasting 2, so I ignored him for a little while to see if he was really awake or if he just prematurely woke up (I really need to move a clock so I can see it while vision impaired).  But when he sounded a little more anxious than fussy, I got my glasses out, checked the time, and was like, whoa. Little boys who let me sleep that long can totally get fed right away!

We got a soothie paci yesterday to complement his gumdrop, and tried it out last night. Alas he sounds different with that in his mouth, but he seems to have a harder time loosing it. So just get used to the new noises, I guess. We also moved my white noise fan closer to him, I think that helped as well. The bedroom has completely changed, fan moved, we have a nightlight by his rock 'n play, and when that still freaked him out, we put a red light in my bedside lamp, and we keep that on all night. Red light is not supposed to affect your sleep, and it really doesn't seem to. But it's really dim so we still need the night light to enhance it. I'd probably sleep better in the dark, but if it minimizes his fussing, well, he is still only 3 weeks old, he wins.

Sighs, Kairi is much happier at the moment trying to claw my feet than laying nicely next to me. Alas, this means much tossing around for her, since I'd be much happier without puncture holes.

Anywho, Peanut's neck is getting a lot stronger. Yesterday we were doing tummy time on my chest, and he had his head up and looking around for... maybe 30 seconds? It was a really freaking long time. It dipped a few times but never  actually hit my chest. At what point do I say he is 'holding his head up' I wonder. When I can sit him up and completely not worry about it? I suppose that's what I'm thinking. The nurses say he could hold his head pretty good from when they got him, so there was really no point where he couldn't. Oh well, some day I'll say he's learned that skill :)

Boi has a random short shift tonight (assuming he doesn't stay late) due to his overnight, so we have time today to finally swing out to look for the light fixture that may be on sale. Then while we're in the store we'll work on my walking some more. I'd say I'm completely drug free now, it's only uncomfortable unless I'm laughing or coughing or moving funny. Then it hurts. But nursing Peanut, now that I'm not constantly taking drugs, is rearing a painful side, and now I get headachey and nauseous.  The intertubes say it should go away around week 6-8 and I should treat it like morning sickness, but yay. It could be worse though, there's one lady I know that has D-MER too, which basically I guess is like sudden depression every time you nurse. That'd suck.

The rest of the invasion starts tomorrow! Run for your lives! Well, not me, not quite up for running yet. But soooooon!

8.5 Pounds!

So this morning, after his diaper change, I carried him down to the scale and did the mommy+baby-mommy weigh-in technique. A week ago, nekkid Peanut weighed 6lbs 14 oz, this morning, Peanut+clothes+clean diaper weighed 8 1/2 pounds. It may not be official, but he's clearly gaining weight! People say it's obvious, but its harder for me to see since he's constantly by my side. But I decided that his smallest sleeper is likely too small for him, it doesn't look like he can fully extend his legs anymore, soooooooo I'm getting my wish :) I tried on a bigger one, and lo and behold it didn't look too huge. So new outfit every day from here on out says I!

He's waking up, time to go soothe him! Ahh, content happy sleepy baby. He's got a bit till the next mealtime, napping is good. If he goes down to sleep after his next meal, I'll likely take one with him. Mmm. 

Well, hmm, maybe not, Boi is supposed to call... Oh I have some time. He's coming home tonight, yay! Then he doesn't work tomorrow! Ok - just found a happy medium. Ended up feeding him afterall, then we came back down to the couch and he's napping on my chest and I can still type. I couldn't do this ... I doubt even a week ago, with his weight on my stomach. I think this will be our new favorite position soon :)

Ok, and now he eventually got too fussy to stay there, but now he's in his swing while I eat food and he's reaching his arms up at the fishes above his head :D that's the first time I've seen him follow the fish with more than just his eyes. Clearly, he's going to be president. Or an astronaut. Or a baseball player. Mwaa!

Oh, I also fit into a pair of real pants today. That is all :D

3 Weeks Old

We're three weeks old today, so he's been home for 2 weeks <3 We're a happy family. We're in the midst of Boi's 5 day stretch, but now that I can drive again I've been taking advantage of my parents and their desire to constantly hold Peanut, and so far I'm staying sane. Tomorrow I'm planning on staying home though, we'll see how things go! Peanut's Great Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this evening, and I've been continued to be assured that he is still the cutest thing ever :) We also got a few books from my Aunt K, including The Giving Tree, which I find to be very exciting. I was surprised that I was really the only one in the room to recognize it, but at the very least Boi said he's heard of it. Maybe we'll have our first real story time before bed tonight :)

We went to D&I's house last night for their housewarming, conveniently after everyone had left so Peanut was less exposed to random germy people. I brought my camera but forgot to snap pictures :( but it was good to be out with friends again. Already my life is completely consumed by Peanut, if I'm not feeding him, changing him, holding him, comforting him, watching him... I'm blogging, organizing his pictures, arranging his outings, etc etc. I've quickly gone from person to mom. Which is fine, but it was a bit weird when I left him with Dad and Mom and I ran out to Walgreens to pick up pictures so I didn't have to carry him in the store (him+carrier may now fit in my lifting limits, but I'm still slow as hell when I'm carrying him). It was a bit weird not having him attached to me... so soon and my brain is fried.

But as soon as I'm able to comfortably lay on my stomach, mom's promised me she's sending me for a massage. Alas, I've regressed, I was able to lay on my side for a week now, but my hip pain is increasing. I was laying there the other night, watching Peanut in his rock and play (pictured) and shooting stabby pain suddenly started up in my right hip (I was even laying on my left) all the way up my back, almost to the point of tears. Suckage! It's been worse the last few days now. Sighs.

Well, can't expect things to just work right right away after giving birth I suppose. My doc said she'd send me in for a xray or pt or something if it wasn't gone by my 6 week appointment, hoping it fixes itself before then. Oh hay, appointment, no blood draw, yay! It was fine, incision is healing good, no more tape on it, Peanut was adored by everyone. Maybe we'll brave the next appointment alone, me and my new guy.

Boi is sitting there just gazing at Peanut right now, so cute :) What a good daddy he is, going out and earning the big bucks so I can stay at home and change diapers and get gnawed on. Even when that means leaving me alone overnight... could be worse I guess, I could be a military wife. Now that'd be hard and lonely! Perspective!

Oh, and here you go, another video! We were doing some tummy time and he took a break and started licking his hand :)

Bellybutton!

PEANUT HAS A BELLYBUTTON! Boi went to change his diaper, and there it was, so he brought it down to me as a gift :) Lo and behold, he is somehow EVEN CUTER now. So hopefully tomorrow night it's not so gooey in there and we'll give him his first real bath :D

We spent the evening at Mom and Dad's, Brother showed up too. Chicken was eaten by me, and it was delish. Peanut was a gentleman too, he's trying to fool the world about his fussiness over the weekend. Hopefully that's mainly the end of it though. He can save fussing more for some other weekend. Totally not looking forward to next week though :( It's a goofy week for Boi, so even though he's taking a vacation day, he's still working 5 days, and one of those will be an overnight. Sighs - DREAD! Maybe a nice foot rub will make me feel better. First though I suppose I need to make it through my post-op appointment. Not entirely sure what's going to happen there... I hope they don't test my iron again, blegh. Oh well, show up and see what happens I guess. At least Boi can once again come with me :) Hard to be too nervous when he's around!

Other than that, it's just more and more explosive baby poop... and he should be insured soon. Woo. And Kairi just sniffed him. Jed was very curious about him too, so far so good on the pet front though. Oh, also he MAY HAVE grown half an inch. But I'll have to reconfirm that, it's kinda hard to measure a squirmy child. We'll have you in 0-3 clothes yet Peanut, and won't need to wash every day! Still have to do plenty of wash, sure, but I want to see him in something other than the same couple outfits! As sweet as it would be to keep him doll size forever, I know it's not possible, so I'm just looking at the positives. Oh and here's a pic of tummy time, sometimes he's a good sport and he moves his head back and forth, and he tries to help with burping, but tonight, he just laid there staring at me until his hiccups started and I gave in and cuddled him again. Also a few new babyshower onesie pics from the last post!

2 Weeks Old!

Peanut is two weeks old today, right now resting comfortably on J's lap, as the in-laws have invaded. Which is excellent really, I love the little nut, but it's good to get little breaks. And he'll likely sleep a little longer on her lap than mine. Wee! Today we went out for lunch, and he got a bit fussy, but nothing that wasn't handle-able. And then later on we went up Rib Mountain. I'm not sure if we actually got a picture of him up there... ah well. Life goes on.

It's been a beautiful week to have him home finally, and things were going great, but of course last night he had to turn the fussy not going to sleep. Boi was amazing and stayed up with him for the first few hours, then they were both able to come up and doze off, then he woke up hungry and again wouldn't go down, so it was my turn. So it could have been worse, I could have just gotten a short nap in-between, this way we both got a longish chunk of sleep.

--------

Ok, Monday now, once again no sleep, cluster feeding, crying, fussing, I got a short nap this afternoon. Of course, he's sleeping right now, but if I try to move him to a safer sleeping spot where we can nap together, he'd wake up. Gah. Gotta think of some solutions, I wonder if he isn't scared of the dark, maybe we'll try a nightlight in the bedroom tonight. I'm hoping its just a growth spurt he's going through and tomorrow he'll be back to normal.

Mwaa Haa, 5 Hours of Sleep

Last night, we got that mystical 5ish hours of straight sleep. I don't expect that to happen again anytime soon, but I looooved it last night. I didn't think he ate enough before bed, and he had the hiccups so he was still awake, so I had Boi give him a bottle. Sure enough he downed it and zonked out :) Too bad he's started to wake up screaming his head off if he's hungry, heh. Oh well, babies will cry.

Mom and Dad came over last night, yay Dad's feeling better! They hung out and listened/watched our style to the game. (Our style being a very cheap feed option from mlb.com on the laptop and the radio) and yay Boi will be happy for another week, as our boys won! I found it funny how it seemed based on my Facebook feed that half of my list"almost had a heart attack."

A sneezing video!

Then I also threw this up https://picasaweb.google.com/112061147386819194738/BabyshowerOnesies an album of pictures of Peanut wearing his baby shower onesies. Gerber runs very small so the 3-6 ones aren't too big on him, though it'll likely be a bit before I try on the ones that are 6-9.

I'm actually doing pretty good today, got out of bed and I wasn't in a ton of pain, and my right foot looks almost normal. I'm sure I can ruin that with some sitting and standing, but it's the most normal I've seen it yet! Peanut continues on doing pretty good too, being a cute guy. I get up in the morning, eat and change his diaper and clothes if need be, then I take him and plop him on Boi's chest and then I go eat, and come back and they've commenced napping again. It's usually a good excuse for me to get a quick little nap in too :) He's going to be hungry again soon though, hmm, wonder if I can't get a quick shower in first though...

First Day Out!

Tuesday was quite the day! Peanut had a follow-up appointment with his new Ped yesterday afternoon, things went great, he pee'd all over the scale, but didn't get enough height/distance to take any records. He's now 6lbs 14oz, up from his birth weight of 6lbs 5oz, so BIG EATER! He aced the rest of his exam, the doc decided we could skip coming in for a two week visit (woohoo!) so he's good for another month and a half or so. He then spent most of the day napping, we picked up K and went to Target and Ace, then went out for some nummy sushi. Much nummy sushi, it was so nice to look at the menu and not have to scout for the cooked rolls. Just ordered whatever sounded good :D Peanut was a champ through it all, napping peacefully, wooing the waitress. So our first public outing was pretty much a success! Yay us, not messing things up! We'll have to try going to my parents house sometime when Dad's not sick anymore!

He then got a sponge bath later that night, he wasn't a huge fan of it, he's got this thing about being nekkid. But he calmed down by the end, as you can see in the picture. Though when we went to give him his diaper change at the end, he decided it was a good time to start pooping non-stop... filled the diaper, so I said to heck with it and just let him poop into the towel. Breastfed poo breaks down fine in the wash, why should I worry about it, right? Of course then Boi let his back hit some of it, and part of his bath had to be redone, lol!

Boi was gone yesterday again, and once again Peanut was a fussy little monkey. Finally got him  to sleep in the afternoon again though, and then Mom and brother stopped by with subs and they held him and kept him happy and not thinking about food. It was another exhausting day and still riding that hormonal roller coaster, but I pumped Boi a bottle and he let me get to bed a few hours before him so I could rest mostly undisturbed, aside from Peanut crying bloody murder when he got undressed for a diaper change.

Then this morning Boi took him to change him in-between nighttime nappings, I heard a loud yell, and figured that meant I likely should get out of bed and help. Peanut got his first really good distance, got poop on the closet door, the floor, all over the changing table, then when we kind of got  things cleaned up enough to resume, he pee'd all over everything! Ah well, it woke us up, but we still managed another nap after it :)

Now we're chilling, Boi is playing video games, which Kairi approves of. The girls haven't been getting the attention they need, so this kind of normalcy is likely very comforting for her, and she's gone and curled up on his lap. Hopefully once I'm cleared to lift things again, I can start to right the wrongs I've committed towards them as of late, but I can't do too much play with them right now unless they come to me, and I'm not holding Peanut. Then right now I've got my feet up and the laptop on my boppy pillow (keeping the weight off my incision, but I can keep my feet up and type two handed still this way), Peanut is laying at my feet, swaddled up and contently napping. Aside from an occasional squeak. What a cutie patootie!

First Full Day Home

First full day home, and Boi works to boot. We did ok last night, well, Boi pretty much slept through the night, though I nudged him once to go change him. Penaut woke me up in 1-2 hour intervals, but hey, it's kind of like being pregnant. I just can't get him to eat enough when he wakes me up before he passes back out, hence the couple 1 hour spans. Sighs, hopefully nature will take care of that soon. Despite him not actually waking up with me, he's the one who took a nap this morning.

Mom came over this afternoon and the three of us took a walk up and down the street. I made dinner, a box a pasta (first thing I've cooked in over a week!) and it took me 4 or 5 attempts to eat it. The last distraction was Peanut getting hiccups... for 40 minutes. Some of them sounded like he was choking :( So he had my attention, I was holding him and putting away dishes when they stopped, and suddenly he turned into CRAZY OMG MY WORLD IS ENDING baby. Apparently either his hiccups are comforting, or they were distracting him from clinking dishes and now he couldn't handle the noise?

He's now sitting in his swing/chair, staring at one of the fish hanging above it. At least I'm pretty sure his eyes are still open, his head is tilted away from me... oh no, he's asleep I think! This will help my desire to keep him on a at minimum 2 hour feeding schedule during the day. Not that it's working too well, lol, and I suppose feeding him more often will just get him more milk in the future, but still, sanity yo.

Today's Onesie!

So he got his social security number today. Also his first bill. Not sure how the insurance thing works, we've called, they say they need his birth certificate within a month of his birth. Apparently most people get a hospital copy, but we got nothing?? But at minimum it'll take 3 weeks to get we're told... so in the meantime... just pile up the bills I guess. Sighs, Boi has called them and the hospital, and no one seems to have a straight answer. I don't want to see the NICU bill before insurance takes it's stab at it!

Must... get... supply... up. This is today's lesson. That and keep him awake to eat.

Such the cutie Patootie :)

Peanut - A Quick Overview

Friday afternoon through Sunday evening I labored to get little Peanut out. I wanted a natural and un-medicated childbirth, but by the time contractions stayed consistently around 5 minutes, I was already very sick. Peanut was sunny-side up, which is a very poor position to labor in, it causes back labor, which is worse than regular labor (so I'm told, I'm inclined to agree) long labors and long deliveries. In my case, Peanut actually ended up getting stuck, so I dilated to a 6, and then stopped. They tried to increase the intensity with drugs, but that also didn't work, nor did the epidural. The doctor told me I really only had one option left, a C-Section.

I was scared about it, but defeated, I suspected Boi was as well. I couldn't imagine going on another hour or two till even another check, never mind making it to 10 some day and pushing. So we agreed, they stopped the drugs, and gave me something to slow down my contractions. Stuff happened around me, time seemed to go so slow while we waited. All I could do was keep breathing, keep breathing, keep Boi giving me counter-pressure, keep breathing.

The first thing I think I said when he was born, I believe, was 'Is he still a boy?' And when he cried his first, I immediately teared up. I shooed Boi away to go be with him, told him to take lots of pictures, asked the anesthesiologist to make sure he was taking lots of pictures. Both Peanut and I continued to cry. I heard them ask Boi if he wanted to trim the cord, I think he said "I guess." If I could have I likely would have chuckled there, that's my decisive husband! I couldn't really see anything that was going on. Finally though they brought him over for me to see. I could touch him and see him, and I wanted so badly to kiss his face but he was just out of reach for that. They told that the little grunting noises were likely just fine, but they were going to go check it out so he couldn't stay. I ordered Boi to follow and to 'take lots of pictures.' The anesthesiologist offered me some valium to help me sleep, and I soon felt groggy.

I must have fallen asleep as I heard someone say I had gotten a nap. They got me back on my bed and wheeled me back to my room. I don't remember if Boi was there then or not, I was pretty out of it. I think he was, as I think after a bit I asked him to go back to the nursery. When he returned, he told me that the grunting noises Peanut was making had them concerned, and they were going to do xrays. (It turns out my friend 'I' actually was the one to do the xrays on him) Commence more crying! He told me that the pediatrician would be in within an hour with the results. We sat there and talked, we may have turned on ESPN by this point as background noise, trying to come to terms with the last few days.

Then the pediatrician came in with the news, Peanut had a pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung, and there was air in his chest cavity. It may heal on it's own, the body may absorb the air, but there was a good chance he would be sent down to the good NICU an hour away. We asked a lot of questions, trying to figure out what was all going on. They were going to do a second xray soon to see if it was getting better or worse. Commence more crying!

In the end, the second xray was worse, so they did a procedure to extract some of the air until the NICU team could arrive. It had been about 2 hours after the surgery, I was starting to get feeling back in my legs, and the nurses told me if I thought I could manage they would get me in a wheelchair and take me down. Slowly, with much dizziness and nausea, they got me into the chair and took me to the nursery. They placed him in my arms and finally I could see him, kiss him, smell him, everything I wanted to do when they first brought him to me. He was covered in wires and on oxygen, but that didn't really matter because he was my Peanut and I was holding him and in heaven. Alas, life decided to just be that much more cruel and the heat from his bed made me very very nauseous and I had to cry out for someone to take him so I could grab my puke bag and try very hard not to vomit, as who knows what kind of crazy pain that would have done to my incision. My nurse was there though and pushed a pillow against my stomach to help soften the blow, and I was able to breathe it away. But I was no longer comfortable with the idea of holding him, so Boi took him and I stared sadly at them, knowing that soon he'd be taken away.

In the end, Peanut healed his own lung. I was released after 36 hours so I could go be with him. He had IVs all over his body throughout the week, including his head. He had lots of visitors, Mom, Dad, Brother and K. At one point they were going to release him on Wednesday, but then that got scrapped when he had a 'spell' where his heartbeat and breathing dropped to dangerous levels multiple times one morning. On Saturday we arrived to room in with him for the night. We had a good time, watched the Badgers and Bambi, kept him fed and dry, he somehow managed to gain 5 oz that night :) 

Now he's home, bruised some, but a whole happy boy sitting in his swing/chair while I quickly type this up. He's got a crazy appetite, but we're catching up with him despite the challenges we faced. I'm a little sad that Boi has to go into work tomorrow, he was supposed to have till Wednesday off, but I know we'll be ok. The cats have started to get curious about him, but they've learned approaching him gets them sprayed, so they've started to scale that back. Now we're looking forward to our first night together at home :)