Monday, Monday

More tubes came out this morning, leaving Bobby with 2 free arms (and more importantly two available thumbs) and making the mama-baby snuggle time much easier. We won't be able to pick him up under his arms for 6 weeks now - it feels so awkward to do everything with a cradle hold. We've struggled with the early holds, trying to figure out what's comfortable for him and manageable for us. Still, its wonderful to be able to comfort him properly now.

Plus, Bobby's morphine has been replaced with loritab. It's helped the pain and doesn't knock him out quite as much. I think today is the first day that Bobby totally recognizes us - in the last few days I think he had some sense that Valerie and I were his comforters, but I don't think he really was awake enough to tell us apart.

Medically, we're in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting for Bobby's oxygen saturation levels to go up. If they aren't better by tomorrow I think the doctors are going to run some tests to try to figure out what might be causing the problem. Part of the issue is that the chest tubes were hiding some congestion in his lung. Now that its been diagnosed we can work that out.

Valerie's birthday is today. Its not such a great day to have a birthday, although Bubsy still managed to find time to send her balloons. He's very thoughtful that way. He's suggested that we postpone her birthday celebration until we can all go to Chuck E. Cheese together.

Valerie got us set up on Yahoo Messenger yesterday. This is great for sending web cam views of Bobby when we can't both be at the hospital. Its equally good for strategizing around difficult hospital personnel issues when said personnel is in the room. We've been very fortunate in that the PICU is not busy so Bubsy has mostly had a 1-1 nurse-patient ratio. Its extremely comforting that the nurse is always in the room. But, unfortunately, it also means that the nurse is always in the room. Always.

For those of you who've done the cardiology tango at Children's - here's an interesting piece of news. When they move to the new hospital building they are going to have a single cardiology floor which will include all patients in NICU, PICU, and the current 5 West. The nurses will be cross-trained to do all kinds of care. This means no more transfers within the hospital (children will have the same room even if their level of care changes) and more continuity of care as children can keep a nurse even if, again, the level of chare changes. The training has already begun - they now have 8 PICU room and 20 PICU nurses that are full time cardiology. I think it will make life easier and the care more sane for kids like Bubsy that are in and out of the hospital so often.