11 Days Old (And Still Amazingly Precious)

I just realized today that it is a holiday weekend. Jeff and I have been so busy running back and forth between home and the hospital that we didn't even realize that under normal circumstances we might have orchestrated a BBQ at our house. Hot dogs, Hamburgers, kegs of beer and root beer. Swimming. Good times with Good Friends.

We haven't talked to many of our friends and family about their weekend plans- but we hope that most of you are enjoying the long weekend and celebrating the last holiday of the summer! (I can't believe how time flies!)

We started our day at 5:30a. We were to the hospital by 8a. We met Ryan's day nurse "Soon" this morning. Soon "SUCKS". English was definitely a second language to our nurse. It was difficult to converse with her and she wasn't the level of nurse that we have grown accustomed to in the NICU.
- We would talk to her and she wouldn't realize that we were talking. The other nurse in the room would have to tell her we were talking to her.
- We would try to tell her how we would be involved throughout the day and she didn't always understand.
For example:
It took telling her 4 times that we wanted to weigh Ryan between feedings (she wasn't understanding the word "weigh")
We talked about going to get "all" of the bottles we had from home and she translated that we were going to the "mall".

ARRRRRGH! Are you KIDDING me?!! I'm tired AND cranky and I have to deal with this woman?!!

To further complicate the positive flow of our day, the Doctor did not write an order for Ryan's discharge partly because there were no written notes on discussions we've had with his surgeon and other Doctor's about what it would take to get Ryan home. All the forces were against us. Had we have had a stronger nurse - and had the doctor's conversations about discharge been better documented, we might have been able to bring Ryan home. Oh well. At this point, what's one more day?

Jeff and I attended the 8 and 11a feedings this morning. We actually put Ryan into one of his own outfits today. The good news is that he still fits in "Newborn" clothing. We weren't sure if he would be able to fit into his newborn outfits because he was over 8 lbs. Jeff brought me home to rest from 1p - 4:15. While at home, I threw the batch of newborn clothes into the washer since we know that Ryan will be able to wear them for at least a short while. I got in a couple hours of solid sleep - which was badly needed. While I rested, Jeff went back to the hospital (mostly because we had very little faith in Soon's ability). Jeff came back and picked me up for the 5 and 8p feedings.

The night nurse was the consummate "Grandma" nurse. She shed a lot of light on the Doctor's and Nurse's different work styles. She also better defined realistic feeding quantities and what would be considered normal stool amounts. (I know... the things we concern ourselves with these days. Believe me, I can't believe I'm blogging about poo!) Ryan's nurse will spoil him tonight. She's the type of nurse who picks you up when you cry and feeds you when you cry and not just at a specified time. We felt much better about leaving Ryan tonight. We may have had to stay if we had Soon as the night nurse.

I honestly don't know how Jeff and I are still going at this point - Especially Jeff since he didn't get in that long nap like I got! We are both running on fumes at this point. Hopefully tomorrow is the "BIG DAY". We will actually be better rested by having Ryan here at home. Isn't that crazy?