Smiles!

Please Note: About 3 pictures down in the blog is a photo of Jarrett's healing incision. If you're squeamish, please either skip this post or scroll over that part really fast!

The night of Thursday the 24th was kind of rough. Jarrett seemed to have a hard time getting comfortable (understandably) and didn't get to sleep until 11:30 or so. We decided to have the nurse give him medicine on a schedule rather than on an as-needed basis so that he wouldn't wake up in a lot of pain and have to wait for relief. This meant that Nurse Alexis had to wake him every few hours for the oral meds. At 3 AM he woke up for meds and had a hard time getting back to sleep. By the time he did get to sleep, I needed to pump and by the time I finished pumping, he was awake again! Consequently, I didn't get much sleep.

I woke up at about 8 to the sound of Jarrett in distress. The shift change had occurred and the morning nurses were taking out his bag, which had collected fluids draining from his heart, and his neck line. These were both good things, but uncomfortable and a bit scary for Jarrett. I was really sorry I hadn't been awake for the whole procedure. When it was over, I said I thought I had another present for him and gave him a Buzz Lightyear football with a tail for him to throw. Soon, he was smiling!

Matt was there and he's the best at keeping Jarrett's spirits up! He and I threw the football back and forth and tried to hit various targets in the room that Jarrett named. Here's Jarrett making his football blast off:

I hadn't realized, but when the nurses removed some of his tubes, they also took the dressing off his stitches on his chest. It was the first I'd seen it:

I read on Pinterest that "scars are tattoos with better stories." I like that and plan to share it with Jarrett someday!

He had to have an echo cardiogram this morning and tolerated it fairly well:

He ordered a waffle, sausage, cereal and fruit for breakfast. Matt cut it up and helped him eat it:

He seemed more tired than hungry, but managed to get some food down:

Aunt Terri or Mom were taking some of these pictures; I was down in the atrium getting some Zephyr time!

Must've been Aunt Terri taking the pictures; Mom and Gramma were rubbing lotion on Jarrett's legs for him, which really seems to feel good to him!

Talk about service!

Gramma had some extra lotion, so she shared it with Matt:

Breakfast in bed is definitely a perk of this whole ordeal!

Momo helping Jarrett:

Lightning slippers just waiting for their next outing:

Momo with Jarrett:

One of the pastors from church came to visit us today. His daughter had needed heart surgery when she was 2 and a half, so he knew what we were going through. He explained, though, that he and his wife would take 24-hour shifts at the hospital while the other stayed at home with their son. They didn't have all the help that Matt and I have--we are so blessed! Aunt Terri made an analogy between Sleeping Beauty's god-fairies and her, Mom and Gramma taking care of Zephyr. That is a bit what it feels like! Eventually, I'll do a post of just Zeph's experience during this time. Every time I see him, he is a happy camper--couldn't have thought it possible for this to work more smoothly concerning Zeph!

Pastor Steve liked to talk. It was nearly 11 and I hadn't eaten yet, or slept much, so I excused myself to do both. It was nice to have him visit, but Jarrett was asleep and I needed to do a bit of self-care.

Aunt Terri took our Camry and Zephyr and drove Gramma back up to Loveland today. I gave her some money to buy some more cars and Legos for the treasure chest here in the unit. That has been such positive motivation to get Jarrett out of bed! I wanted to make sure there would be plenty of toys for other little kids going though here, too.

When I returned after a two-hour nap at the hotel, Jarrett's room had no people in it. Technically, he's ready to be moved up to Progressive Care, but there are no beds available up there right now, so he's staying in ICU. Our stuff still littered the room, so I knew they had to be around somewhere. Sure enough, Nurse Sarah told me that they were looking out the window.

I grabbed my camera to get pictures of a few things I liked outside his room. This frogs-playing-Scrabble picture, for instance:

A ladybug on the floor. Once, when I was walking around with Jarrett today, we stepped on and counted each of the ladybug's spots:

A flower on the floor. I suggested stomping on the flower petals, but Jarrett said, "Stomping makes me feel sick." That was a good opportunity to talk about listening to his body and not doing things that hurt it!

Jarrett was having a great time looking out the window! There was a brand-new playground directly below us--so new that some of the nurses hadn't even known it was there! Unfortunately, it's not ready for kids yet. Jarrett was ready for it, though! He stood for a while, then sat on a little table that he said "wibbled and wobbled." Here he is with Momo:

Kelly from Matt's work and his wife Shaina came by to drop off a gift and a card from Matt's department at the Academy. They were on their way up to Keystone for the weekend. They didn't come back to see Jarrett since their boys were waiting in the car with Shaina's mom, but they visited with Matt and I for a little bit. Jarrett was excited to get to open a new present:

I can't describe how wonderful it was to see smiles are Jarrett's face today!

It's a car-carrying truck. It carries the same kind of cars as the one he got with his flowers from Gramma and Grampa!

Papa got it out of the box for him:

He and I played on the window ledge for a while:

Candy Cane got to ride in it, too, of course:

We used his blood pressure cuff to pump gas into the vehicles:

I liked the reflection in the window of the toy:

After a walk around the ICU circle, Jarrett wanted to play on the floor of his room. I read him his card from Matt's department:

It was time for Jarrett to take some medicine. He insisted, "I don't have any ow-wies." Nurse Sarah explained that this wasn't medicine for ow-wies, but for his heart:

I'm so glad he's not in pain most of the time!

I gave him the Maters I'd ordered for him from DisneyStore.com. He wanted to line them all up:

It was getting harder for him to stay upright, so we moved him to his bed. There, he wanted me to play with his Maters and his Candy Cane. I pretended that Mater was trying to use his disguises so that Candy Cane wouldn't recognize him. (Jarrett now has the Maters from Cars 2 when he gets his spy disguises. He has Dracula-Mater, Taco Stand Mater, Hot Rod Mater, Blue and Red Mater and Mater-hosen--my favorite!)

I also pretended that astronaut Mater and Lightning were landing on the moon with Impala XIII:

I was running out of fresh material, so Matt swapped with me for a while. He told the story of Goldie McQueen and the 3 Maters, and the 3 Little Maters and the Big, Bad Banshee:

Loving it:

Soon, Aunt Terri was back with Zeph from their Loveland excursion. She brought up a bag full of toys she, Gramma and Zephyr had chosen for the treasure chest. Jarrett got to choose one to keep for himself. The rest, he and I took over later to have available for the other kids. Here's Aunt Terri showing him what they found:

Surrounded by toys:

I was down with Zephyr when Jarrett got a sponge bath. Aunt Terri took pictures for me:

I love how he can still play during the bath:

When Nurse Sarah had to leave for the day, she thanked Jarrett for a good day and said it was a relief after her previous day. She said patients like Jarrett make her love what she does! We've had wonderful nurses this whole time--so thankful for them. Jarrett's nurse from his first day, Gill from Scotland came to check on him early this morning even though she was assigned a different patient today.

There never was a room available in the PCU today, so we're still in ICU. The rooms up there are more comfortable in that they have a private bath and maybe a bigger bed for me. That's not really a big deal. I was more concerned that Jarrett really wants to play now and they have a playroom while ICU does not. Nurse Sarah went and got some toys for Jarrett when we mentioned his desire to play to her.

Matt went out to eat with Zeph's entourage while I stayed and played with Jarrett. We put together puzzles and played with blocks. He made a house out of blocks and called it a "Helmsdale House."

He has yet to allow us to turn on the TV here. I did get him to watch a couple short videos on my computer today--one on how candy canes are made and one about Disney's Haunted Mansion. Other than that, he's really against turning on the TV. This morning he told me, "There's a sign that says, 'No TV.'"

There you have it.

For now the plan seems to be that we will try to move Jarrett to PCU tomorrow (Saturday) and then discharge on Sunday. It's subject to change. He could be going home as soon as tomorrow. That's both amazing and a little scary to me. I know they will brief me on how to take care of him, but right now it seems a bit overwhelming. I'll probably transition by having Matt or Dad stay with me and the boys during the day for a day or two to get the hang of how to deal with my healing 3-year-old and very busy almost-1-year-old.

Still, I couldn't be happier at the progress Jarrett is making! Soon this will be just a distant memory and we will have a healthy little boy to show for it!