Journal Series - Day 3

• If you’re just joining, I am doing a little journal series of our time in the hospital when Mr. Green had his open heart surgery to fix his heart defects that were discovered in utero. These are the thoughts, feelings, and emotions I had while there and the different situations we were in. I journaled every day we were there so I could look back and remember.

Around midnight they removed a few more med lines and his arterial line - because he pulled it out, and tried to organize all the lines and wires and tubes to make it easier for us to hold him. They also turned his oxygen down to 10 and officially gave us the okay for him to breastfeed, but he fell asleep and I didn’t want to wake him. At 1:55am I finally got to nurse him for the first time in almost 48 hours - he also hadn’t eaten in general in almost 48 hours. He only nursed for about 8 mins, but it was successful. Once I got him settled I tried to get some sleep, but that was pretty much impossible when there’s alarms beeping and dinging at all hours. Around 3am the respiratory therapist came in and did a breathing treatment and used the vibrator thing to help break up the gunk in his lungs. He woke up to have a chest x-ray done at 5am and I fed him shortly after and this time he was able to nurse for around 10 mins. Then, just because I could, I sat and held him for about an hour but I felt myself start to nod off so I had the nurse help me put him back into bed. I thought I got him all settled so I could try to lay down to sleep but he wasn’t having it. So I tagged Nic in around 6:30 so I could get some sleep. The Dr. came in around 7am to check on Mr. Green and then the respiratory therapist came in again at 7:30 for another breathing treatment and turned his oxygen down to 8. At 9am they did rounds and decided to stop all meds except Tylenol, Oxycodone, and IV fluids. They also disconnected the pacing wires from the machine, although it wasn’t even being used they were just attached as a precaution in case they needed to use it. I also fed him again while they were rounding and this time he nursed for 30 mins, definitely getting his appetite back now. Then our nurse Alli got him all cleaned up and he napped on me for a while until he pooped and got a little too warm. At 1pm the respiratory therapist came and used the vibrating thing again, which he kinda likes and ultimately fell asleep - so I decided to head back to the Rainbow House to take a bath and try to relax a bit. 

I got back to his room around 3:45pm and he was STILL napping! But woke up when he heard my voice and decided he should probably eat again. Nic then had to run to the store for some dye-free tylenol because they were out at the hospital and that was something we were pretty insistent about. Mr. Green kinda snoozed on and off until Nic got back and then got a little cranky because he got too warm and had pooped again. We also noticed some oozing/leakage around where his chest tube is so a couple doctors came by to check that a little after 5pm. His oxygen is also down to 21% (room air level) and at a pressure of 6! We finally got some Tylenol in him at 5:30. At 8pm the nurse cleaned his lines to prevent clotting. Up until then we just snuggled and he drifted in and out of sleep. A little after 9pm the respiratory therapist came in to do CPT (the vibrating thing) and the nurses/doctor were doing rounds at the same time and came in and told her he could now be bumped down to 4 (oxygen pressure). At 10 he nursed for a while and then it was to bed for all of us! The nurse came back in at 12:30 but since he was sleeping she let him be and just checked his blood pressure.