Feeding the Ducks

Mom and Dad took care of Zephyr during the night--we're hoping that by the "jump start" we got by having me absent during Jarrett's hospital stay, Zephyr will learn to sleep through the night. He doesn't expect to nurse anymore, and the times that he is waking up are shorter and shorter! There's a fringe benefit to this surgery after all!

Jarrett woke up two or three times in the night. Matt went through a whole ordeal last night trying to get Jarrett's prescriptions filled. Finding a 24 hour pharmacy that worked with our insurance was the first hurtle. We didn't find one within a reasonable distance from the house, so he ended up at Walgreens and will file a claim with the insurance later. Once at Walgreens, they couldn't fill Jarrett's medications basically because they're the kinds of medicines used by adults who've had heart surgery and they didn't have the necessary concentrations for a child. After talking with the CICU doctor a couple of times, the doctor was able to work out a dosage with the pharmacist that would meet Jarrett's needs.

Matt got home very late and very frustrated, too. Being a bit of an emotional wreck, I kinda freaked out when I saw what he brought home because they weren't liquid forms like Jarrett had been taking at the hospital and they weren't given the same number of times throughout the day as we'd been instructed at the hospital. I called the ICU again and worked things out with the doctor. The pharmacist had written the wrong dosage on the bottle so I'd have been giving Jarrett too little medicine if I hadn't called to verify!

Anyway, I had to wake Jarrett up to give him his meds. One of them has the side effect of making Jarrett need to potty, so one of the times he woke up, he'd wet the bed. I slept with him a lot of the night, but alternated between his twin bed (just on the floor of the room Matt and I were in so we were nearby) and the comfortable queen bed with Matt.

After we got up and ate breakfast, I was pretty spent just from all the emotional wear and tear and the fractured nights of sleep at the hospital. I was able to go back to bed and slept for 4 hours! Jarrett joined me for three of those hours. It was so refreshing to get some sleep!

Before Jarrett joined me, they tried to have a tea party. Jarrett was very excited about it until all the food and drinks were in front of him. Then he was mostly tired:

He drank a little bit of tea, but then decided to finish the tea party after a nap:

Making sure he didn't want any cookies before the nap:

We did a good bit of playing after his nap, but pretty low-key stuff. Not a lot of running around today! After Mom and Aunt Terri's trip to Sam's, we strolled over to the pond to feed the ducks. Jarrett rode in the stroller (we only brought the little umbrella stroller this trip), and Matt carried Zephyr. Jarrett was directing my "driving" the whole way over: "Don't go over a rock, Mama. Don't go in the snow, Mama. Watch out for that crack, Mama." He was keeping us safe!

The ducks were excited to see us:

Here's Jarrett feeding the ducks:

Zephyr watching the ducks:

Zeph didn't quite get the concept of giving the bread to the ducks. When Papa gave him a piece to throw out onto the pond, Zephyr popped it in his own mouth!

It was pretty cool to watch the ducks pounce on the bread from up above:

They'd circle around the piece of bread:

Jarrett would ask, "Where's the mama duck?" or "Where's the daddy duck?" and want to feed them specifically!

The light was dimming, so pictures without flash were starting to blur; here's the best I got of the ducks circling the bread:

The geese formed an orderly line to come over to get some food:

Zephyr watching the ducks:

I don't think he really liked the concept of sharing his bread with the ducks. Papa would have to pitch it out to the ducks quick before Zephyr could snag it!

Jarrett thought he saw some other ducks that were hungry, so we moved on down the sidewalk a bit:

Sure enough, there were other ducks to be fed!

Love those Lightning slippers!

Ready and waiting:

Papa got a mallard to eat out of his hand:

I love mallards!

Jarrett wanted out of his stroller for a bit to introduce the ducks to Candy Cane:

He walked up over the bridge before returning to the stroller:

Back at home, we played a game I never get any pictures of: Mama Tent. I throw a blanket over myself and bend so that my hands and feet are on the ground, making a fairly good-sized tent for the boys. Jarrett was excited to play and Zephyr soon wanted to be a part of it, too. I kinda look like a piece of furniture in this picture:

Both boys crawling out the "doors:"

You can see my hands peeking out of the blanket. I honestly get a good stretch playing this game!

Both boys in:

Mom and Dad drove Aunt Terri back to the airport at about 6. What would we have done without her? Knowing that Zephyr had 3 (and sometimes 4!) adults to bounce off of, made me feel completely confident to focus all my energies on Jarrett. Aunt Terri is so good with little ones that I knew I could trust her judgement completely. I'll post pictures of Zephyr's experiences during this week soon. Never once was there one of him crying or upset!

While Mom and Dad were gone, we ate some pizza Mom and Terri had picked up at Sam's. Jarrett was back to his very talkative self during dinner. He was talking about going to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and seeing the banshee and asking the banshee for directions to Mickey's house. He talked extensively about visiting Mickey, introducing Mickey to Candy Cane, playing with the toys in Mickey's basement (completely a Jarrett invention!), etc.

I don't think I've included this Jarrett-fact in the blog before, but sometimes when we ask him if he needs to go potty, he'll say, "I'm not rubbing my penis." That's because when he used to answer "no" to the potty question, we'd say, "You're rubbing your penis so we thought you needed to go."

Anyway, you need that background information to understand the following part of Jarrett's monologue about Mickey:

Jarrett said, "I will ask Mickey, 'Do you need to go potty, Mickey?' Mickey will say, 'Yes. I'm rubbing my penis.' I will say, 'Okay. I will take you to the potty, Mickey. You can use the big potty.'"



* * * * * *

Jarrett took his first bath in a bathtub tonight since before his surgery. He's fine to take baths as long as he doesn't submerge his chest, and that will only last until the scar heals in a couple weeks or so.

This was the first time Jarrett saw his scar. He asked me, "What's that on my chest?"

I said that it was his scar from his surgery.

He paused a moment, then said, "Will it hurt?"

I said that if it doesn't hurt now, it's probably not going to hurt much. I also told him what Michelle had written to me after seeing his scar in a picture: "Cool scar!"

Won't he have a good story to tell someday when people ask him about it!

Homeward Bound

Jarrett's sleep was interrupted at 4:30 this morning for his daily x-ray. The x-ray technician accomplished this by using a portable x-ray machine. They slid a slide under him, then left the room to snap the picture. Here she is setting it up:

The machine is painted up like a jungle--pretty cool!

Jarrett still wasn't able to go to the 9th floor progressive care unit because they didn't have any beds. We really wanted him to be able to use the play room up there because he was ready to play! Our nurse, Adrienne, called and found out that we could go on up to play once they opened after his breakfast.

Jarrett wanted to touch the 3-D fish on the way down the cardiac hall:

He was also interested in the rail on the wall and said that Candy Cane needed to hold on to the rail to help him walk:

The play room is run by volunteers. Our volunteer was Rachel and she works there every Saturday morning. Jarrett was very excited to see so many toys!

We played with farm animals and cars and all kinds of things.

Look at him bringing over a big car!

He wanted to play with the Foosball table, so Papa and I started playing, too:

Jarrett kept score for us and dropped the ball in the slot:

Dad kept getting after me for spinning the handles. He said I was cheating and Jarrett said, "Are you a cheater, Mama?"

He and Rachel and I built a pretty nice train track:

More Foosball:

The playroom closed for an hour at noon, which was good because Jarrett needed to eat and take a nap. While we'd been playing, Matt was working out the details of Jarrett's discharge--today already! The doctor on duty wanted to give Jarrett a check up before allowing him to be discharged:

Can you believe this guy was operated on just 3 days ago?

He kept sliding down on his pillow. Some of the time this just happened; this time, however, he did it on purpose so he could say, "Mama! Help get me u-up!"

Jarrett and I took a 2 and a half hour nap after his lunch in his bed, which was awesome! When he woke up, it was time to start the process of getting him discharged!

To be honest, I was quite scared about leaving the hospital. I liked the security of having a nurse right outside his door and all the monitors and screens to make sure everything was doing what it should inside his body. I'm also very nervous about being on my own with busy Zephyr and a healing Jarrett. We've decided on a transition plan to help me feel more comfortable: we're spending a night or two at Mom and Dad's where there's lots of help and we're not too far from the hospital if we'd need to go back for any reason. Then, Matt doesn't have to go back to work until Wednesday or Thursday, so I'll have lots of help in the Springs, too.

Matt and I were very diligent in making sure we got to ask all our questions of the nurse and make sure we understood all the information she gave us. Jarrett is down to only using ibuprofen and Tylenol as far as pain meds--amazing, isn't it? He does have two special heart medicines that he has to take morning and night. We also got a prescription for a narcotic. He hasn't taken any narcotics since yesterday morning when he got his neck tube out, so we're doubting we'll need to use it, but we'll have it just in case.

Papa played with Jarrett while Mom, Matt and I packed up the room:

Then it was time to go reunite Jarrett and Zephyr! Zephyr was waiting down in the atrium with Aunt Terri, riding around in a wagon. He looked up to us on the third floor. Once he figured out who it was, he smiled!

Jarrett was riding in a wagon, too. This was their reunion:

Zephyr wanted to crawl out of his wagon and into Jarrett's:

They rode in the same wagon:

I love the looks Zephyr gave Jarrett:

And that Jarrett gave Zeph:

Jarrett got to watch the ball machine for a bit while I fed Zephyr for the first time that day:

Candy Cane and his heart pillow in the wagon:

Jarrett climbed up on a sofa. He was getting ready to climb to the top of it, but I wouldn't let him--too scared that he'd hurt himself:

Still, pretty awesome that he has the desire to climb!

Mom got pictures of us with our boys--a family of four again!

Love this one:

Papa pulled the wagon out to the car:

In case I need socks for Zephyr, I now know where to look--at the base of his car seat. I found two or three pairs there that he'd discarded:

He went straight for the piano when we got to Momo's house:

Jarrett wanted to play downstairs, so we did. Here's Matt and Jarrett playing ping pong:

Zephyr was standing, holding onto the block drawer with only one hand:

Jarrett kept asking Matt to "pitch" the ball!

When it was time for dinner, we were in party mode! Mom got out a bottle of wine made in Del Rio in the year 2009--just like Jarrett! Here's Aunt Terri pouring it:

Jarrett wanted some wine, too, since it was his party. He settled for OJ in a wine glass, though:

And some chocolate milk. He wanted to clink his glasses together like we had when Mom said, "To Jarrett's heart." And Aunt Terri: "May it last forever!"

Here's the bottle we drank:

And yes, even I had to drink some wine for this special occasion!

Jarrett played piano when he was done with his food. He'd turn the pages in the music book and say, "I know this song!" Then he'd proceed to "play" it with his foot!

We needed to get out some salad dressing and Dad said that they had some of that "Clint Eastwood" dressing. He meant Paul Newman. We all had a good laugh from that--Aunt Terri said it would make her day!

Zephyr getting some good Daddy time:

After dinner, it was time for presents! Here's the one from Matt and I wrapped in the box Aunt Christy sent from Lily's birthday party:

Inside was a new wrist watch with a rocket band on it. I'd seen it at the hospital gift shop and thought it had Jarrett written all over it!

He also got this big package from Momo and Papa:

Inside was a lot of Little Einsteins stuff. He got his own stuffed Rocket, a globe, lots of DVDs (if he ever decides he wants to watch TV again!) and a book! Momo helped him to start figuring out the globe:

Like any proper party, we had balloons. Jarrett was bopping them around saying, "Balloon party! Balloon party!" Zephyr helped, too!

Mom, the boys and I in front of the fire:

Jarrett wanted to play with Mom's collection of corks after she showed him the cork from "his" bottle. She has a cool wire wine glass container to hold the corks:

Zephyr seemed to dig the wine-flavored teething devices:

Jarrett was moving incredibly fast for a guy just 3 days out of surgery!

Before bedtime, he spent a few minutes checking out the flowers he'd received from Gramma and Grampa:

On the way home from the hospital this evening, I felt so emotional. I'd had to be so strong for Jarrett while in the hospital, that it was as though I could finally let my guard down a bit. I feel so incredibly blessed! He rallied so much faster than even the doctors predicted. Zephyr handled the separation so well. Everything went better than any of us could have imagined. Priti told me to be "fearless" because everything was going to be just fine. She was so right!

At the same time I'm so thankful and happy, I also feel guilt. I talked to another mom in the unit today who's toddler son was not responding well to the surgery he'd had. I spoke to her before we left for home and she said he was doing better, but he will still be in my prayers these coming weeks. I do feel a bit like a "cheater" in that everything went so smoothly and easily for us. Jarrett handled the whole ordeal with such bravery--I couldn't be more proud of him! The worst setback we faced was the possibility of needing a blood transfusion, and even that was avoided. We have our little boy back again, better than ever. I just wish that everyone could have the experience we had.

* * * *

It's late and time for me to get some rest. But tonight I'm going to be with the most grateful and happy heart a mother's ever had! Praise God, for he is so good!