It has been a great couple of weeks since we brought Ben home from the hospital. A hard, emotional, busy, exhausting, but great couple of weeks. It turns out that it is easier to have the NICU raise your child than it is to do it yourself...a fact I think we failed to appreciate in our eagerness to get him home. Not that we aren't thrilled to have Ben home...just would have been nice if we could have swapped out a screaming two year old or something.
First Day Home
Leaving the hospital was awesome. Just getting him untethered from any sort of machinery was a great feeling, somehow made him more "ours" than "theirs."
Farewell UNC. Thanks for all the hard work and wonderful care and attention...something tells me you won't forget to send the bill.
First Day Home
Leaving the hospital was awesome. Just getting him untethered from any sort of machinery was a great feeling, somehow made him more "ours" than "theirs."
Farewell UNC. Thanks for all the hard work and wonderful care and attention...something tells me you won't forget to send the bill.
Ben's Man Cave. We aren't ready for Emmett to give up his 2 - 3 hour afternoon nap, so Ben will hang out in Mom and Dad's room for the time being. Actually, we ended up putting him in our bathroom. Before you judge, I'd like to clarify that it is a pretty nice bathroom and the feeding tube really needs to be by a sink.
Parker was happy to have Ben home, but exercised a healthy amount of temperance, enough to make sure we knew he thought Ben was cool but not so cool that any of our attention should be diverted from Parker. Emmett on the other hand thought he had just been given a new puppy and that it was all his, to do with it what he pleased, a puppy that wears red pants, of course.
Here are a couple of videos, they are a little long, but a fun memory of our first time all together as a family. The only other time Emmett laughs like this, due to excitement, is when he is about to eat something with sugar, so Ben reached the upper echelon of Emmett's interest.
The G-Tube
Our feelings about the G-tube have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. There is really nothing better than feeding a baby without any hands. That said, adding another hole to a baby's body, from which things can exit, is never a good idea. That first day was pretty crazy, it felt like we were working in an ER every three hours biting caps off of syringes and running up and down stairs getting a tube, or a clamp or a syringe and pushing and pulling all sorts of liquids in and out of his new port.
"Is it clamped?" "Don't open that!" "How many ML's?" "Syringe please!" "Wait, the rate or the dose button?" "Maybe this button" "Seriously, can I get a syringe" "Don't press that button! Definitely not that one" "No, the other syringe" "Why are there so many syringes?"
Meanwhile the feeding machine is beeping and stomach contents are exiting because you forgot to do something the nurse warned you not to do. It took a few days, but with my impenetrable ziplock system to organize the 12 different steps required to feed and give medicine to this child, we were pros.
Last weekend me and Parker and Emmett, met up with the Richards boy cousins and Grandpa for their first football game, BYU vs UVA. Parker was more interested in the marching band than the football game, whereas Emmett was thoroughly engaged in the clapping, cheering and rah rah rah'ing.
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In the likely event that we don't get around to sending a birth announcement, I'd like to let you know this picture is definitely my vote. Parker made him a hat, and he wasn't really in a position to protest.
Parker was happy to have Ben home, but exercised a healthy amount of temperance, enough to make sure we knew he thought Ben was cool but not so cool that any of our attention should be diverted from Parker. Emmett on the other hand thought he had just been given a new puppy and that it was all his, to do with it what he pleased, a puppy that wears red pants, of course.
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The G-Tube
Our feelings about the G-tube have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. There is really nothing better than feeding a baby without any hands. That said, adding another hole to a baby's body, from which things can exit, is never a good idea. That first day was pretty crazy, it felt like we were working in an ER every three hours biting caps off of syringes and running up and down stairs getting a tube, or a clamp or a syringe and pushing and pulling all sorts of liquids in and out of his new port.
"Is it clamped?" "Don't open that!" "How many ML's?" "Syringe please!" "Wait, the rate or the dose button?" "Maybe this button" "Seriously, can I get a syringe" "Don't press that button! Definitely not that one" "No, the other syringe" "Why are there so many syringes?"
Meanwhile the feeding machine is beeping and stomach contents are exiting because you forgot to do something the nurse warned you not to do. It took a few days, but with my impenetrable ziplock system to organize the 12 different steps required to feed and give medicine to this child, we were pros.
The New Normal
Ben has assumed his position on the bouncy seat. They kept him company for the first few days, but Ben has since been resigned to the corner of the room, where I am sure he is just hoping that someone is watching the occasional yelling child running past him to make sure he is not in harms way...no promises Ben. The boys showed him all their cool stuff and made sure he was clear on where the "line" is on the couch that Emmett is not allowed to cross if Parker got there first. And of course Ben had to check out the tree-house.
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Now we are just trying to get back to normal. The biggest impedance to this effort is certainly the doctors appointments. The tally was 8 in the first week and 6 in the 2nd week. There is one person to thank for making sure Ben got where he needed to be 14 times in two weeks and I am not him. Emily has a new full-time job of finding doctors and therapists, coordinating appointments and figuring out where to send Parker and Emmett. Luckily she is infinitely more popular than I am and we are blessed to have a lot of great friends that have stepped up and alleviated a very stressful situation. That said, it was a hard couple of weeks. Emily was stripped of the normal opportunity to bring a newborn home and just spend time with him and bond. By the time Ben got home, all of our wonderful family that had been here to help had to leave and I had to go back to work. Although Ben was a month old, having him home was like he was brand new to us. Instead of cuddling all day with what felt like a 2 day old baby, she had to go to cart him around to multiple doctors offices and rehash all the things he is facing and all the reasons he is not "normal." Meanwhile Parker and Emmett took it upon themselves to redefine the "Melt Down" as the newness of Ben wore off and they went through their adjustment phase.
Amidst all of that, Ben is growing, developing and progressing each day. "Normal" is starting to fight its way through all of the changes and there have been enough happy experiences to reassure us that all is well. Parker and Emmett have certainly accepted things and are moving on.
For Parker, this means butterfly and cricket catching. I felt bad putting a nice big butterfly in jar with the cricket, so we built a butterfly cage:
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Last weekend me and Parker and Emmett, met up with the Richards boy cousins and Grandpa for their first football game, BYU vs UVA. Parker was more interested in the marching band than the football game, whereas Emmett was thoroughly engaged in the clapping, cheering and rah rah rah'ing.
1 comment:
Are a beautiful family, I like when Emmett is a sweet brother. Hugs
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