He saw me through the door and I could read his lips: “Mama!” And he was excited to see me. (Yay!) He finished out his turn in the game they were playing and as I was gathering his bag, his teacher said he did just fine—that he’s VERY talkative!
The first thing he said to me? “I love school! School is SOOO fun! When can I come back?” 🙂
On the way home I just started recording him because he kept talking about school and I was afraid he wouldn’t do it once we actually got home…I didn’t want to miss the moment. So that’s why the video is all over the place—I was driving and obviously not watching.
When we got home:
Me: Do you want to tell me more about school?
Owen: No, it’s a secret.
And then he asked for a granola bar and to watch TV.
This is what I get to listen to off and on all day every day—this is her reaction to me taking something away from her or telling her no. It gets old FAST.
Other than changing batteries in kid toys, taking out the garbage and recycling, making sure the pool survives, removing/installing car seats, troubleshooting the network, installing a new video monitor, and dealing with cat litter [whoa, I didn’t plan to list that many things but I just kept thinking of them]…I had my first actual Tom job to deal with today: ant piles. (So really, I should say my first outside Tom job that I only do when he’s gone.)
Three really big piles had sprung up in the front yard and a few tiny ones had popped up in both the side yard and back yard. So I put the poison granules on them and watered it in. This is what one pile looked like after I doused them.
Owen did pretty well [trying to] sleep with the lights and vital checks and trips to pee. I wasn’t super comfortable but it wasn’t awful. I turned my lights out at 10:30 and was up at 11:30, 12:30, 3:30, and 5:30—finally getting up for good about 6.
And even though he had strong doses of meds all night…he still didn’t poop (he did pee a few times). He’s a tough bugger, apparently. Or, rather, his poop is the tough bugger. 🙂
He spit up at about 6:15 but it was just phlegm. I had to call the nurse so we could change the bed and get him into a gown. His B also got a little wet so I just threw it in the Family Lounge dryer (I was going to pack an extra B and forgot). Bad mom.
An upset stomach (nausea) can be a side effect of too many meds, so they turned them down (they had been up to the max level). Then he vomited at 7:15 and the tube came out. Ugh. Which means we likely have to go through that torture again. We’re waiting to hear the official next step—though I’m sure it means the tube goes back in because he still needs the meds to poop. 🙁
At least I don’t feel bad for being unsuccessful with the Miralax regimen at home—if they can’t get things going with serious drugs over 12 hours…what hope did I have?
Yep. Another tube. And an enema. Joy.
But before that happens, here’s a happy Owen, cleaned up and in his second gown of the day.
“Mom, I’m gonna lay like this. This is great!”
Of course he’s happy now—he doesn’t know what’s coming. 🙁
Nurse: [Grabbing Owen’s toe.] I think I’m gonna eat this.
Owen: No! I need it! [Taps his toe on the bed.]
Nurse: So I can’t eat it?
Owen: No, toes are for walking, not eating.
It was four hours before he got the second tube. FOUR HOURS. This is walking with the nurse to the treatment room.
This is getting the drugs via the port.
This is Owen on giggle drugs (Versed).
This is putting the tube in. It was a different tube and was done in under 30 seconds this time. Phew.
After he calmed down, they have to blow a puff of air through the tube to see if they can hear it in his belly. Owen wanted to listen, so they let him.
The same as yesterday, we had to wait for an X-ray to confirm tube placement. The air puff can be enough confirmation at some places but here they want to make absolutely sure.
The same as yesterday, he was a hot mess as the drugs wore off. Fine one moment, crying the next.
He wanted to see what he looked like:
It took FOREVER for the X-ray confirmation. So long, in fact—well, at least to me—that I completely forgot about it and panicked and called the nurse (and when I couldn’t get him, snagged the pediatric liaison in the hallway) saying he wasn’t connected to his medicine. I blame lack of sleep.
Tom Skyped in and Owen burst into tears and did NOT want to talk to him. After we hung up, Owen was sad he didn’t talk to him. But didn’t want to talk to him if he called back. Stinker.
Owen finally fell asleep about 1:30 so I ran down to grab a quick bite (and they had a volunteer sit with him in case he woke up while I was gone). Then I took a half hour nap, too.
He can’t easily get to his normal left-hand thumb, so he adjusted. 🙂
They RE-started his meds about 2:30 and planned on doing the enema once he woke up.
As a side note, there have been a few machine snafus—nothing life or death—just annoying.
Of course we get the wonky machine that beeps when you unplug it (it doesn’t hold its charge, apparently) so it starts beeping immediately. That’s nice…especially in the middle of the night. Or when Owen is napping and some other random steady beeps happen. I just push whatever button it’s requesting to shut it up—then go find the nurse.
And I have yet to ask about the nurse call button. No one ever shows up when I press it. Luckily there’s not been a real emergency and I can find someone at the nurses station. (I’m not talking doesn’t show up immediately. I’m talking doesn’t show up after three calls in 15 minutes.)
So…turns out I was using the call buttons on the bed when I was suppose to be using the one on the remote. Yeah, that wasn’t told to me, even when I was talking to the first nurse the first night (about telling Owen not to push that one for fun). I asked some random nurse who was standing outside our room and she cleared it up for me. I used the right button and someone answered in a minute.
Which, oh yeah, Owen pooped! Just a mere 21 hours after starting the meds and 26 hours after being admitted. Hallelujah.
But of course he didn’t go on his own. I had to practically beg him to “just try.” Which he finally did…and then let loose. Yay! But he wasn’t happy—he was crying and drooling. 🙁 I assured him it was okay and that’s what we wanted to happen!! I’m hoping that means we won’t need to do the enema.
He had to pee about a half hour later so I said “Let’s try to poop since we’re already here.” More whining and crying. I almost had to force him on the toilet. Once there? More poop. I just can’t understand how he can hold that all in without feeling uncomfortable or like he’s got to go!
When the nurse finally made it in (he had been admitting a new patient) he was thrilled at Owen’s pooping and agreed we’d hold off on the enema. He said he’d have Owen try to poop while I went to grab dinner.
On the way down, I actually noticed the mat in the elevator. I’ve been in it at least four times since we got here.
When I got back from dinner, I found out from our awesome male nurse that Owen call(s)(ed) him a doctor because he’s male. This is odd because Owen’s pediatrician is a woman (but his GI specialist is a man…) so it looks like we need to have a little talk. Rodney got a kick out of it regardless. 🙂
As we were just sitting there:
Owen: I don’t like needles.
Me: Well you’re done with shots.
Owen: Phhhheeeewwww!! Complete with hand wiping across forehead move.
Me: [Laughing]
So I made Owen poop four more times and the last three were (for all purposes) clear so we’re just waiting on the final word from the doc to get the last X-ray! And he’s already off the meds!
If it was any earlier we’d get to go home tonight…but since it’s a bit of a drive we’ll stay and try to sleep and check out first thing in the morning. (Had he not barfed up the first tube, we’d be about SEVEN hours earlier in this process and surely headed home tonight.)
At 9:30 he was given a clean bill of health—and the okay to eat! Of course, I hadn’t brought ANY snacks (I assumed we’d just eat after he was discharged) but the vending machine had his favorite crackers!! So he was a happy boy!
And the tube should be coming out shortly! (I just wish that part wasn’t taking so long because it’s already WAY past his bedtime (it’s currently 9:45). I know this situation is a bit unusual, but still.)
The doc said he’d cancel the nightly vitals checks so hopefully we can both get some decent sleep…and when the nurse came to take the tube out a little after 10, she said fluids were done, too! YAY! So now at least if he has to pee, he can do it alone (though of course I’ll still hear him). He was excited that he could now potty alone. He still has the port in just in case.
But oh. Taking the tube out. He screeched and cried so much while she was just taking the tape off I was flabbergasted. I mean, I’m sure it didn’t feel great, but I thought his reaction was way overboard…which I blamed on him being overtired. The actual tube removal was nothing in comparison and he about ripped it out himself.
So…an eventful day. Hell, two days. Overall I’d have to say it went much better than I thought. And I really hope we never have to do it again.
The hospital finally called about 10:30 and my sitter came over and even though I was mostly packed and prepped, we didn’t leave until noon (and that included turning around—thankfully before we left the subdivision—to get his B that he forgot to grab).
They weighed and measured him—holy
cow! He’s at 59.8# and 46″ tall!
Just chilling, waiting.
You can see where I get to sleep in the background.
Once he was watching TV he was okay…but he did keep asking for snacks. Poor kid…the last thing he ate was cereal for breakfast. I was going to give him a snack on the way then forgot…and of course all he can have is clear liquids.
I talked to the doctor and she’s really nice. Gave her the quick run through on his status. Of course, the past few days—that he’s been completely off Miralax—he’s pooped just fine…so I was thinking the Miralax was the issue. But…he had pooping issues before the Miralax so we really need to do this to make sure we’re starting from scratch. The doc agreed, saying the X-ray would, of course, show us what was going on.
Getting the X-ray—it came right to us!
Then it was more waiting. And then the doc came and said “Oh yes. He needs it.” She took me back to see the X-ray. She said it’s not that bad, but you can definitely see it in the lower part of his intestine. So I went back and explained to Owen that the picture showed he had lots of poop in his body—and he wanted to see it. So I took him down to see it and the doctor explained it to him as well. By the time I finished talking to the doctor I came back to see this:
Yeah, he loves the adjustable bed. 🙂
Then he was playing doctor with his patients. He diagnosed the turtle with something-I-couldn’t-decipher-poopinosis. Thank you, Doc McStuffins. 🙂
Then. Unfortunately, it was time for the blood draw and tube down the nose. He was a rock star with the blood…
And LOVED his special Spider-Man webbing…
And then they started the drugs. And it was hilarious seeing him loopy.
But then the torture began. Three people holding him down (while he was wrapped in a cocoon) while one nurse tried to insert the tube. And she couldn’t get it. She tried twice. Then another nurse tried. Then they went to a smaller, shorter tube—which went really quickly, but he was already through the roof. Poor kid.
Then back in the room he was a hot mess. Part of it was the meds, but most of it was just him not being comfortable or having any fun. He didn’t want his B, the TV, a movie, or any of his prizes. He didn’t want me to sit with him. He didn’t want dinner (which is good since he can’t have any).
The hardest part is he’d be calm one minute then crying the next saying “I don’t want this [the port in his arm] anymore.” Or “Can I take this [the tube] out now?”
One of his calm moments watching TV:
Then he’d ask to see what was on his face so I’d show him and/or take a picture.
Everyone has been nice and the place is quiet, but there’s a lot of waiting. At our 3.5 hour mark (after arrival), he still wasn’t even getting the stuff to make him poop. I know there’s a process…but I wanted it to go faster. 🙁
This is where he landed since he didn’t want to be in his bed.
He actually told me to take a picture!
Then they delivered his “clear liquids” dinner. I got him excited about the “orange ice cream” but he didn’t like it. And of course he said no to trying jello and broth. And I knew he wouldn’t like the tea or cranberry juice. Since I was starving I had the broth (my only option for food on a Sunday night is in the main hospital—and I’m not sure I want to leave him alone…and I forgot to bring snacks). I also tried the orange italian dessert and honestly can’t blame him for not liking it. The lemon jello wasn’t thrilling, either.
Then they came back to take another X-ray to make sure the tube was in correctly (it was).
So while I was trying to work on this blog post, I kept getting errors. Come to find out:
SERIOUSLY? Adult and pornography? I called the number and didn’t get anywhere. The guy couldn’t do anything (he said “it’s Sunday—no one is here”). And he had no idea if anyone would do anything anyway. So, so much for using free wifi. 😐
Owen finally asked for some juice about 6—then drank an apple and grape juice—then seemed in better spirits. I “took a walk” to check out the vending machines and ended up with cheese crackers. I guess that’s dinner. Though I did check out the cafe menu for tomorrow…and I’m definitely eating there. 🙂
After about an hour or so, Owen announced he wasn’t cranky anymore. 🙂 And then he had more fun playing with the bed and was just watching TV.
They started the IV about 7 and when he wasn’t pooping by 9 they increased the medicine. As we’re going to bed now (9:30) he still hasn’t pooped…so I anticipate a sleepless and messy night.
Yeah, speaking of being here overnight…there’s no way I could NOT stay overnight (I laugh now that I was even considering it). And obviously no one is in the room with him aside from me—plus he has to drag the IV with him—so I’ll be doing all that. Which I’m fine with…but they should really tell you that beforehand. Of course I’ll have zero problems paging the Nurse if there are any messes. 🙂 (But she told me to page her when he gets up so she can take his vitals then instead of waking him up.)
So, two cute stories:
I needed to hit the vending machines earlier so I made sure Owen was okay that I was leaving for a few minutes. Sure, no problem. A little while later I told him I “needed to go for a walk to stretch my legs” (which really meant another trip to the vending machine) and he says “Don’t be a stranger!” Where does he get this stuff?! 🙂
He loved his Spider-Man web hand, but wanted to take it off since it was interfering with him holding his juice. So we took it off but then he had to go potty. Well, somehow, in the 10′ round trip between the bed and toilet we lost the glove. I searched but it was nowhere! So I had to hunt down a nurse to ask for more webbing.
Nurse: Oh, does he need it for his IV?
Me: No, he lost his Spider-Man hand.
Nurse, chuckling: Ahhh! No problem.
We had an invite for the beach today, but I just am not ready to take Katie and Owen to the beach. Owen would be fine, but I have no idea if Katie will be a content to sit and play in the sand baby or if she’d be a run up and down the beach baby—and didn’t really have the energy to find out today…so I passed…but invited others over for the pool. One mom came over (the same one who went out to dinner with me on my anniversary) and it was great.
Getting ready for the sun:
This is what happened when I asked the kids to pose. She did and Owen looks like he’s attacking her! 🙂
Unfortunately, Katie was a total crankypants—the first time since she’s started this recent teething episode. But she liked the watermelon (and wanted to share, as you will see in the video).
I finally got out the baby pool we had when Owen was little (Tom just found it before he left):
And it was HOT. And with the running around with the kids and getting the air compressor out of the shed, yada yada yada, I really wanted to go in the pool. Ruth said “Sure, go ahead!” So I did! I spent about 15 minutes in with the kids—and Ruth even got Katie into a swim diaper and then brought her to the pool with us! Then Ruth even got in up to her knees to cool off. It was really, really great and I appreciated it immensely!
We decided to give the bounce place another try since some of the moms were going. Owen HATED it before but that was two years ago so I was willing to try it. I explained it would be like the big water slides but without water. He seemed interested so I kept my fingers crossed.
We walked in and once he saw everything, he was almost vibrating with excitement! YAY!
There was a toddler (under 4) area and Katie spent some time there…
The family that had the birthday party this past weekend still had the slide today so they invited us over. Of course, Owen was ALL ABOUT THAT. There were a lot fewer kids there, too, so I just let Katie roam and she had A BLAST. Even in the rain and the mud.
On the way home I asked Owen if, when daddy comes home, he’d rather go to the water park or have a big water slide in our backyard and he wants the water slide. SCORE! That’s much, much cheaper! 🙂
Katie took an epic nap so by the time we arrived almost two hours after the party started, everyone was inside for present opening. Owen had been super patient at home so was SUPER excited about the water slide…and not so much about anything else…so as soon as the birthday girl opened our gift, I took him outside (and a friend took Katie).
It was an overcast, rainy, and disgustingly humid day…but he didn’t care at all. And he went right up like he’s been doing it forever (each slide is a bit different and none of it phases him).
Then Katie got wiggly and wanted to walk around.
And was excited to see Owen!
And seemed very interested in the kiddie pool…
Her first time on a swing by herself.
If you listen closely you can hear her saying “Wheee!” 🙂 The video isn’t too long since I wasn’t able to have a hand on her and though she was pretty steady, she was looking around at everything and not reallyholding on.
His first break two hours in!
He didn’t want to leave, but Katie didn’t want to be held and it was too hot to be chasing her around. There were also too many kids running around in a muddy yard who weren’t exactly paying attention to a little one wandering around…
Someone is happy that we rearranged the office and she has her window seat back.
And I guess this is as good a time as any to show pictures of the new desk Tom built… I’ve been meaning to post them but then it got later and later (and you know how I like to have posts on the day they actually happen) until I kinda gave up. But today works.
Though the desk has been a work-in-progress for months (he started with gusto and then took a long break and then finished with gusto!) we finally got it put together on August 1.
Ahhh, so nice and empty. I still REALLY miss the orange. 🙁
The three-piece L-shaped desk! That white cabinet (aka old printer stand) is now placed at the end of Tom’s section of the desk (which is just out of frame). It now has the scanner sitting on it, unplugged, since we rarely use it (I have a Fujitsu ScanSnapthat I love and use more).
Tom did a really great job and it’s SOOOO much better than the [two-year] temporary desk we had in there. (We used to have an L-shaped desk in here, but after a few PCS moves, it was a little shaky.)
Since the temps really dropped today (with it being overcast and off-and-on rainy) I thought it would be a good time to go feed the ducks!
Me: Owen, do you want to go feed the ducks?
Owen: No.
Me: Why not?
Owen: Papa isn’t here.
Me: That’s okay. We can still go feed the ducks.
Owen: No! I told you we only go with Papa!
Me: Well Papa isn’t going to be here for a long time, so if you want to go now, we can go. Then when Papa comes down, you can go with him.
Owen: OKAY!
So off we went, with Katie in the stroller (I didn’t have the patience to have her walk and try to contain her by the ponds).
Then there was a female duck that Owen called a baby duckie because it was so much smaller than these other birds. I hope you can hear him in the video—it was windy and he was pointed away from me.
And see…Katie really was with us!
Then Owen told me we had to go to the other water to look for ducks, so we trekked across the course. No ducks. But he wanted to roll down the hill! I convinced him to wait and roll down the big hill that WASN’T covered in duck poop. 🙂
It was going on a good 5-10 minutes before I came in and started recording. But once he sees the camera…it just takes off exponentially because he’s telling ME a story instead of having a conversation with his Legos.
We couldn’t find his goggles tonight so he was closing his eyes—and having a fit “because I can’t see anything!” 🙂
Somewhat more wet…
As with most of his pool toys, the shark was one we bought that he pretty much wanted nothing to do with. Hug it? No. Sit on it? No. Swim with it? No. But give him a week or so and look what he’s doing…
Katie loves it when we pull her around…and then Owen was pulling her around and singing Row Row Row Your Boat to her. And see what else she does?! 🙂
It started off innocently enough with Katie crawling up to see what Tom was doing.
Then she has to sidle up next to him.
Waiting for Owen’s potty break:
I definitely see Uncle Rob in these next two pics (she’s definitely a Hudson):
And just like that, all the fun ended when Katie spit up on me. Katie and Owen had apparently just played and laughed so hard for so long that Katie spit up milk chunks all over me. And not just your run-of-the-mill spit up…but horrid smelling curdled nastiness that required a quick shower to get the stench off my skin.
So while we were out running a few last-minute errands, we bought Maggie a nice new fluffy bed. As soon as we set it down, someone else found it (I told you she’s just like a cat).
Then Maggie found it.
Then Katie decided SHE wanted to be in the bed…and Maggie wanted NO part of that. So it was round robin for a bit…Katie out, Maggie in…Katie back, Maggie out.
Then Owen got involved and Maggie gave up and went back to her stack of blankets on the hearth.
Today she just started walking across rooms like it’s cool. She still drops to crawl a lot, but she can definitely walk if she thinks about it. And it’s terribly cute. 🙂
Of course, I didn’t have my phone on me all the times she did it…so I’ll definitely get a video tomorrow!
Here’s one attempted video where she looked like she might walk…but didn’t. 🙂
that I love and use more).
