Come to Jesus talks

My Nurse Jen threatened to have a "Come To Jesus Talk" with me this morning. But then she looked at my cute face and decided that I wasn't so bad......she knows I'm just being hungry and a little bit ornery!!


Good morning everyone! I had a very busy day yesterday. Okay, that's not entirely true....I was scheduled to have a very busy day yesterday, but schedules are apparently made to be broken. Mommy talked to the doctor in the morning and he told her I was going to have a PIC Line put in so that my tummy catheter could come out. The PIC Line is more safe for me with a lower risk of infection and it can last longer. They can keep my PIC Line in for at least 2 months. The doctor assured mommy that I wouldn't need the PIC Line, or any other sites like it, in 2 months. The PIC Line enables the nurses to give me my medicine without worrying about the line infiltrating. The only down fall is that they can not draw blood from the PIC Line. So they have to poke me for blood, but it's okay because the doctor says that because I'm doing so much better than expected he decided to decrease the number of blood gases I get in a day.

So my PIC Line was supposed to be put in me around 12:30pm. At 11:00am I was supposed to meet with the developmental specialist who evaluates me on a weekly basis during my stay in the lovely NICU. She came to visit me and mommy briefly yesterday morning and said she would come back at 11am, but her watch must have broken because she came back at noon and got mad at herself because she was off a whole hour. She rescheduled for today. I just hope she got her watch fixed! Then 12:30pm came and went and I still didn't have a PIC Line.

The doctor had told mommy that he wanted her to do more Kangaroo Care with me, but due to the pre-arranged tight schedule, the nurse didn't think there'd be time. It turns out there would have been, but no one has a crystal ball, so I did not get to hold mommy yesterday.

To make up for not being able to hold mommy, I got to visit with Grandma Hewlitt and Sherry, a really good family friend. Sherry was amazed at how small I was and got really excited when she saw the size of my first diapers. Mommy gave her one, which seemed to make Sherry's day. Don't worry....it was a clean, unused diaper! Grandma and Sherry didn't stay long at all, basically just long enough to say hi and drop off some necessities for mommy.

Right before Grandma and Sherry left, Daddy came!!!!!! It's hard with daddy being back at work because we both miss each other a lot. Daddy hasn't been sleeping very well at home, so both mommy and me are worried about him. The day actually worked out great because my PIC Line didn't get put in until around 4pm so both daddy and mommy were here to make sure the procedure went well. It went awesome.....daddy says it's because I had the two best NICU Nurse Practitioners working on me at the same time. I say it's because I'm a tough little guy.

Teresa and Shannon did the procedure and they did really good. The PIC Line is under the skin and actually travels up through a vein for quite a ways to ensure good placement. Mine happened to enter at my little heal and then travel all the way up my leg, past my hip, and into my abdomen. Sounds like it would hurt, but the great part is that the catheter is so tiny that I still can move my leg just as much as I did without the PIC Line. All you can see when you look is just the entrance site where they put my medicines. I did bleed a little bit because the needle they used to poke me was bigger than the catheter, but daddy says it was still tiny compared to most needles. The procedure took about an hour from start to finish and I got two x-rays out of the deal. Once the catheter is in, an x-ray is taken to ensure proper placement. The first x-ray showed that Shannon was in the right place with the catheter, but she had fed it into me too much so there was 2cm of extra catheter that did a little loop at the end. It was easily fixed with Shannon gently pulling those extra 2 cm back out. The second x-ray was perfect! Daddy told mommy that I might become a nuclear baby with all the x-rays I keep getting. He's just joking of course, but it helps to lighten the level of anxiety.

Once I was all taped up and back to wiggling all my limps, something I do better than any other person in this world, mommy and daddy took a quick break to have dinner. I like that they feel safe leaving me for short periods of time because they need a break too. Plus, when they come back it makes me all excited and happy!

Daddy looked really tired so mommy talked him into taking a nap on the couch in the room. Daddy tried to argue with her, but he didn't get far because he was asleep once his head hit the pillow. That was about 7:00pm and he ended up sleeping on the couch until 1:30am this morning. Mommy woke him up twice to make sure he was okay with sleeping at the hospital. The first time she woke him up, daddy asked her to wake him up before midnight and he would go home so he could be ready for work in the morning. Mommy then woke him up at 10:00pm and they decided daddy would just sleep at the hospital and get up at 4:00am to go to work. Daddy slept so good because he didn't have to worry about me, cuz I was less than four feet away from him. Mommy and daddy sometimes go through some separation anxiety when they have to leave me. It's because I'm so cute!

I started out the night time with my alarms beeping almost constantly. The ventilator beeps because it's warning the nurses that I'm not relying on it as much. So the Respiratory Therapist came in and changed the alarm parameters so it didn't beep as much. Then the alarm for my O2 kept going off. The nurse came in and fed me, changed me, and turned me on my side, and my saturation jumped right back up to Awesome! This was the first night I got to sleep on my side. It's because they took my tummy catheter out now that I have the PIC Line. Mommy said I actually looked comfortable for once. She laughs at me because I sleep in some funny positions. The nurses and mommy agree that some of my positions don't look comfortable, but I like to sleep in my own way. But sleeping on my side, what a new concept.....I'll have to try that more!!!

I slept quietly almost all night. Daddy slept and mommy slept too. Daddy ended up leaving for home about 1:30am and then he called at 4:30am on his way to work to make sure I was doing good. Mommy was up when daddy called because she was pumping some milk for me to have later. I kept sleeping for a little while and then at 5am my O2 alarm started going off again. I was getting restless in my cave again. My Nurse Jen came in 5 times to make sure I was okay and each time my saturation would jump back up to normal. The sixth time she told me we were going to have a "Come to Jesus talk". She was pretending to be all mean and mad, but I melted her. She watched me for a little bit and then told mommy that I was only being ornery because I was hungry and it was almost time for me to eat. Mommy told the nurse that I usually desat around eating times. The nurse said that it's okay that I do that because it means that my little body recognizes hunger and since I can't talk I have to let someone know somehow. Mommy says I'm a smart little man!

Now it's 6am and I get to eat so I should get going. Mommy and I are going to put some pictures up on here during the day today. And mommy is gonna participate in a scrapbook class....she says she's going to make me the best scrapbook ever!!!!!! More later.