Happy Due Date

Happy Due Date Robbie!

Tomorrow you will be a whole 7 weeks old.

Here is hoping you can come home soon!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Pearson Ave,Toronto,Canada

Rob makes a Friend

This morning we saw that one of Bruce's Football guys became a Dad early this Friday morning.  So imagine my surprise this afternoon I was heading out of my corner of the NICU and came across him giving his daughter a bottle in the next room of babies.

So I bring you the two proud Dads hanging out at the hospital.

It Was Mess up Mom day today

As it turns out I am not quite staying at the hospital yet.  They decided that he was doing better with some of the feeding and want to wait on it.

Of note today was the fact that I almost had to leave the hospital in a hospital gown today.  Note quite, but close.  During bath time, he thought it would be great fun to pee on my T-Shirt and pants.  I swear if he could have giggled he would have.  Then after he had his lunch he was snuggled up on my chest and managed to spit up all over my chest.  Lucky for me I had taken my shirt off and had a hospital gown on for Kangaroo cuddling.  If not, I would have been minus a shirt.

I think I'm going to be heading off to the hospital with a change of shirt from now on, just in case.

Working on eating

Well, it looks like I'm going to be spending a lot more time at the hospital with my wee guy.  They think they want me to be there 24/7 to help get his eating up to snuff.  He's not a fan of bottles which means I'm required to be there more often.

Since there isn't really much in the way of internet access or computer labs at St. Josephs the posts may be a little on the late side.

Here's hoping he can come home soon.

Time Flies

I realized today that Rob's surgery was a whole 2 weeks ago.  Wow does time fly.  He's healed really well so far.  I was really hoping that he could be home by now, but he still has to work on the eating enough to not lose any weight thing.

So we're still with the daily trips to the hospital.  I really hope we're done with this soon.

In other news, I got to give him his first sponge bath today (don't worry, he has been bathed before this several times).  He was not a fan of this at all.  However, snuggle time and food afterwards was a big hit.

Look Ma! No Tubes

Today was a pretty cool day in the life of Rob.  This morning when his Grandmother Parker was visiting, he decided to pull his NG (Feeding) tube out.  He's had enough of that tube and wanted it gone.  Mind you this is the third time he's done that, but still.  They aren't going to be putting it back in.  So he's no longer got a feeding tube and is getting all of his nourishment through breastfeeding and bottle.  This means he's that much closer to coming home.  His little cheeks are still a bit red from all the tape they were using to keep the tube stuck down, but we can actually see his whole little face now.

Snuggling with more grandparents

Today your Grandmother Parker got to hold you for the first time.  She was very happy to finally be able to give you a little snuggle.

Rob is still doing well

Our wee Robbie is stil doing well.  We spent the day cuddling yesterday and that was good.  He started to do a better job of eating in the evening as well which is promising.

The doctor was quite encouraging as well.  He seemed to think our wee guy wouldn't be there that long.  So hopefully it means my wee guy can come home soon!!!!

Nifty Blanket

Just thought I would share a photo of the cute blanket my office sent our Mr. Rob.  It's a pretty awesome personalized gift to get.

I'm sure I will be posting some random photos of things people have given our Mr. Rob as things fit/he comes home.

Rob is all tucked in for the night

Tonight Rob was transferred over to St. Joseph's.  Sadly I was not.  They don't have the same setup that Sick Kids does.  So there are no rooms for parents to stay in with their kids.  There is a some sort of shared parent room that can be used occasionally, but not guaranteed and you are sleeping in a room with some random other parents that are in the NICU.

And they have put him in the NICU in an isolette on monitors.  I kind of feel like that's a step backwards to three/four weeks ago.  Now I realize they are doing it to make sure that he's ok but still...

This means that I'm home in the evenings now.  So that means you do get more blog updates.

Sick Kids is truly a magical place for child care.  They really do go the extra mile and a half for the kids.

One of our nurses took this picture of us a few hours before it was transfer  time.  

Waiting

Well we seem to be in waiting mode.  Rob and I are being transferred over to St. Joseph's for the growing and we just aren't sure when it is going to happen. 

Maybe today, maybe not.  So I'm all packed and ready to go if he is. 

In other news, Mr. Rob has started to go through his outfits like crazy.  He's been playing games with the nurses who don't know him so well and making messes when he's getting his diaper changed.  I'm on to him and haven't any problems for awhile. 

I don't know what kind of facilites they have over at the new place so updates may be a little sporadic.  I do have a bunch of items and photos to post once we're back in the land of easy access internet. 

He is also as of today 6.1 pounds.  He's growing like crazy. 

Busy Days and Progress

I've been stayingin in the hospital again with Rob so that is why the posts haven't been as frequent.  We've been brusy growing, learning how to eat and losing more and more attachements each day.  By the end of today Rob should only have his feeding tube and oxygen monitor left. 

The doctors say he is doing well and doesn't need to be in the cardiac ward anymore.  Yay.  It's just preemie stuff to worry about now which is really learning to eat.  He's working on it.  Hopefully later on today he's be doing much better with that.  Today is the first day he hasn't had either his chest tube in or some morphine for doing tests.  The tube made it painful for him and the morphine just makes him too sleepy to eat.

Because he doesn't need to be on the Cardiac ward anymore it looks like he's going to be going to another hospital in the next couple of days for eating and growing.

Next post may be from a different hospital.  I wish he could be coming home but if it helps then that's what has to happen. 

You are my Sunshine

I am a terrible singer.  But it is good to sing to babies, so I've been trying.  Rob seems to like it, but he doesn't know any better yet.  I have found though that because I never sing I can't remember all the lyrics to all the kids songs.  I've got partial refrains and the like.  So I need to look up the lyrics to a bunch.  One of my favorite songs that i wanted to sing to my wee guy is the you are my Sunshine song.  I only knew the refrain, the song is actually much longer and I'll have to learn it.  Before the surgery I kept trying to sing this song to my wee guy, but kept starting to cry when I got to the you never know how much I love you part.  But now I can sing it and not start crying.  Just get a little misty.  


You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
You make me happy when skies are grey,
You'll never know dear how much I love you,
So please don't take my sunshine sunshine away




Full Lyrics

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

The other nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

I'll always love you
And make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me
To love another
You'll regret it all some day;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

You told me once, dear
You really loved me
And no one else could come between
But now you've left me
And love another
You have shattered all my dreams;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

Louisiana my Louisiana
the place where I was borne.
White fields of cotton
-- green fields clover,
the best fishing
and long tall corn;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
Crawfish gumbo and jambalaya
the biggest shrimp and sugar cane,
the finest oysters
and sweet strawberries
from Toledo Bend to New Orleans;

You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

Still Mr. Speedy

Today was  no different from yesterday.  Our Rob is Mr. Super Speedy.  When we called this morning, they told us that he was doing so well that they were transferring him back up to the 4D Ward.  And sure enough when my sister and I got there later on in the day to visit, he was up in the Step Down Room.

They have also started getting rid of many of the tubes and wires he has.  When we were there, they took out 2 of the IV lines he had.  

If he keeps going the way he is, then he'll be home before you know it.

In fact one of the nurses that had been looking after him before the surgery walked by me in the hall, smiled at me and kept walking....then she turned around and came back with a "hey wait a minute is he back already?"

Our speedy healing guy

We had a nice surprise when we got into the hospital this afternoon.  They had decided that he could be extubated.  So our guy had his head in a box getting some extra oxygen.  Much better than a breathing tube in his nose.  He's making great strides in healing.  There seems to be less and less in the way of tubes and drugs and the like.  They stopped his morphine today and are just giving him tylenol now.

We were able to have snuggles which was amazing.  I figured it would be a couple of more days before we would be able to do that.  They were very ginger cuddles since I didn't want to jostle him too hard.  I'm sure Bruce felt the same way.  He even kind of opened his eyes very momentarily.

While we were there they changed the bed he was in from one of the small heated beds to a "Big Boy Bed", which i a regular kid.  It's really funny how the size of the bed changes your perspective.  In the small heated one he looks big.  Then when you get him into the regular bed he looks absolutely tiny.

So here's hoping that he can head up to the step down room soon!  That's one step closer to being home with us.

One thing I hadn't realized, rather than stitches to close up his chest, they used glue.  I thought that was a little odd.

And now for pictures!

Our wee guy when we got there.  

Snuggles!

And when we were leaving, he was in his big boy bed.  

Rob is Looking Good

Our wee Rob looks pretty good the day after his surgery.  We didn't take any pictures since it would probably scare people to see how he looks right now.  There are more IV's, sensors, wires, chest tub and the like sticking into him right now than there were the first time he was in the CCU.

The doctors think he's progressing well and will most likely start "losing" tubes and things over the next few days.

I even changed his diaper even though it made me nervous moving him at all right now.

Happy 1 Month Birthday!!!

Wow, Rob is one month old today.  I can't believe it's gone by that fast.

This photo was taken yesterday  just before the surgery.  We spoke to the CCU nurse this morning and she told us that he was doing well this morning.  So this is good news!  

We'll be off to visit him a little later on today.  

Settled in the for the Night

We got to see Rob in the CCU tonight.  Again he's got all sorts of tubes and wires and things, but he's doing pretty well at the moment.  They are going to watch him closely for the next 48 hours, but so far so good!

I'm back at home now since there isn't much I can do for my wee man right now.  So I'm home to get some rest and see the cats.

Surgery all done

The surgery is all done and our Surgeon came out and told us all has gone well. So we are just waiting for him to be moved to the CCU so we can go see him.

The operation took from 2 to 6:30. Can't wait to see our we'd guy!

Phew

Location:Elm St,Toronto,Canada

Surgery is a Go!

Little Rob went in for surgery at 2 this afternoon. He should be in there for about 4 hours or so.

I wasn't sure he would be going today. But he did. Poor little guy was so miserable because we wouldn't let him have any food starting at 4 am.

It was interesting. We walked him to the OR from the ward. I picked him up and Bruce wheeled the oxygen.

He let the entire atrium know how hungry and unhappy he was.

So now all we can do is wait.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sick Kids OR Waiting Room

Bravery Beads

Sick Kids has a program for the wee ones that is supposed to help them out with being brave for all the tests, surgery and generally unpleasant things that have to happen while they are in the hospital.

Basically they get a string necklace and can collect different kinds of beads that are associated with different procedures, surgery, hospital admission, blood transfusions, etc......

I had seen a bunch of these beaded necklaces hanging off IV poles.  Some kids have lots of them.  It kind of makes me sad that they have to have so many of them, but at the same time the kids have them like a badge of honour.

While Rob is too little to make his own, I started his today for him.  I probably haven't remembered everything he's had done to him that warrants a bead, but I think I'm close.  He's got 20 beads already with more to come over the next few weeks.

In a few years when he's better able to understand, we'll give it to him as a reminder of how lucky we are to have him and what a rough start his little life had.

An update after being away from the internet

It’s been a busy few days.    I haven’t been posting as much because posting from one’s iPhone is not the most convenient way of doing things when there is lots to type and there is no internet on the ward. And since I've been at the hospital with our little guy since Wednesday......

Last Thursday we were supposed to go for the surgery, but it got cancelled because the first surgery of the day went longer than they thought it would.  So we went back to waiting. 

Over Friday and Saturday, our wee guy was having a bunch of issues with the oxygen levels in his blood.  At one point they had him in an oxygen box to help out with it all.  They were actually at one point talking about putting a breathing tube back in to help out.  Thankfully they didn’t need to.  A blood transfusion on Sunday morning did the trick to make the levels stay in a good place.  The only way we had been able to keep him in the safe zone before that was to have me/someone else hold him.  But I was the preferred one .  So I was actually up for about 24 hours straight snuggling him. 

Now after the transfusion he’s good. 

And we’ve heard that our surgery is going to be either on Tuesday or if not, it will be on Wednesday. 

Here’s hoping it all happens tomorrow.  I would like to get the surgery done with so he can heal and come home.  

I am a baby pillow

Well it looks like I have become a pillow for the young Snugglesauraus.

He doesn't do so well unless I am holding him. So it looks like I will be holding him 24/7 ish until the surgery happens sometime next week.

I can have substitute holders but I am apparently the best.

Thankfully our room has a comfy rocking chair and a DVD player.

Now back to snuggling.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sick Kids

Home Away from Home

I'm not posting quite as much right now as I'm pretty much living with my wee Rob at Sick Kids.  He tends to do much better if I am holding him as much as possible.

Updating on the blog on my phone is not the easiest of things to do, but I will do my best to keep this blog up to date while I'm here.

We don't have a new surgery date yet but hopefully soon.

Breastfeeding

Interesting.  In a conversation with the Lactation consultant today we decided to stop trying to use a bottle with the wee guy as it is better for breastfeeding training.  So no more trying the bottle for the little guy.   We were going to go with a combination of both while he was in the hospital since I wasn't around 24/7, but since I've moved into the hospital that won't be a problem anymore. Less confusion for the little guy and he also doesn't seem to really like the bottles anyway.

No surgery today

No surgery for wee Rob today. The first surgery went much longer than expected.

So we will be waiting to hear about the rescheduling.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Elizabeth St,Toronto,Canada

Surgery Date

Tomorrow is the big day. We have a surgery date of tomorrow afternoon provided the morning surgery doesn't go into overtime.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Walton St,Toronto,Canada

First Bottle

Today we tried bottle feeding the wee guy instead of the feeding tube.  The trouble with that is that he's pretty much asleep most of the time.  But on our third try at feeding him with a bottle, he got the idea and had about a third of the bottle.  He wasn't really awake so he would suck on the bottle a bit and then doze off again.  But I think we'll get there.

First Footy!

Unfettered Snuggles!

Dear Rob,

Today was a very cool day.  They decided you didn't need the nutritional supplements they were giving you through an I, since you are growing so well.  So that means we can disconnect you from your monitors and walk around the room with you.  It also means we don't have to worry so much about pulling things out accidentally.

It was pretty awesome.  We had some super good snuggles.

Love Mom

Happy Three Week Birthday!

Dear Rob,

Can't believe you have been in our lives for three weeks.  I'm still in awe of how wonderful you are and how much love I have for you in my heart.  

Love

Mom

Changes Every Day

Our wee boy graduated today from the incubator to a crib.  He looks so small in the crib though.  Having him in the incubator really gave you a false sense of how big he is.  He looks really tiny in the crib.

Today we got to spend lost and lots of time cuddling.  He has the funniest little hiccups.  I could just spend hours and hours just snuggling with him.  

Because he isn't in the little warming oven anymore, Bruce brought him some clothes when he came to pick me up tonight.  It's funny.  When I was putting all of these clothes away I thought they were really tiny.  Well, my son is even smaller.  He is just swimming in this onesie that says it is for 5.5 to 8 pounds.

Happy New Year!

This new year we celebrated with our special guy.  We had our partying at Sick Kids Hospital.  It was snuggles and kisses at midnight.

I think it is the best New Year ever!

And it was cute, a little girl who was in the same ward was so excited about staying up for New Years that she ended up ringing in the New Year 15 minutes late.  Her family and the nurses did the count down.  It was great.  

Then after we rang in the new year it was time for a snack!

He slept through his snack, but it's good news he's up to 22 ml of breast milk at a time.  

Surgery

Today we found out that the surgery to fix our wee man's heart is probably going to be the week of January 10th provided he keeps growing and doing well.  Hopefully this means he might be home at the end of January or the first bit of February.  That would be exciting.