A Night in "the CP"

My wife will probably be mad at me when she reads this, because she's going to blame me for stealing all the good stuff that she had planned on writing about. She's sleeping, however, so phlbbth!


We began the day wondering about the phenomenon of the CICU time warp; it feels like we don't do anything all day yet are constantly busy. Paradox much? I'm not quite sure how it happens, but it's true. My best idea is that the days are full of several tiny events, each of which may be individually inconsequential, yet collectively demand all of our attention and time. Here's an example. This morning little Wolfie looked something like Two-Face from The Dark Knight. See how the right side of his face is all dark? Well, it went all down his chest as well! I admit I was startled. Yet upon further research (read: ask the doctors), I found out that he simply had "harlequin color change," a harmless, self-resolving condition in which a baby's color on half of his or her body will turn darker than the other half depending on which side is down. It's completely harmless and will go away soon, which makes it actually kind of cool. (Ed note: be wary of researching this harlequin thing on your own. Seriously. I'm not kidding.)


Later, Samuel got a bath. So cute! And he seems to be really enjoying it.


Oh...almost forgot. Some friends were asking about the Tide reference in the last post. To clarify, Kristin did not go home or do laundry; she did leave the hospital, though, because she was desperate for clean clothes. I, for one, am thrilled she took a much-needed break. At any rate, she went to Sports Authority and shopped for a couple of hours, buying some new, non-maternity walking/running gear. Here, our friend, AT, celebrates Kristin's pilgrimage by sniffing her new Nike's. Why? I have no idea.


In more important and relevant news, Sam was sent upstairs to the CPCU today! Hooray! We're now on the 9th floor and have a private room with a private bath. Hooray! Also, we can have more than one guest at a time, so if people want to come visit, give us a call. This is big time. It means he's doing well enough that we may be able to go home soon (knock on wood...). At this point, the doctors are still "tweaking" his air flow and his meds as well as trying to get him to feed independently of his NG (nasogastric) tube. Tomorrow, they will start "bolus" feeding rather than continuous feeding in hopes that he will be hungry enough between boluses to try feeding without a tube. The sooner he does that, the sooner we go home. Hooray!


Finally, just wanted to give a shout out to Jax, our overnight CPCU nurse. While we were excited to be moved up to the less critical ward, we were a bit concerned because we didn't know how much one-on-one attention Sam would be getting. Luckily, though Jax normally works in "the CI," tonight she was floated and randomly assigned to us. We felt much more comfortable because she and Sam are kind of going steady now, and we knew she would take great care of him and us. Sure enough, we could not have needed her more. The faint of heart should stop reading here...good night! Sleep well!

Okay, the rest of you. So one of the goals of "the CP" is that parents start to participate more directly in their child's care. Kristin and I interpreted that to mean "diaper duty." As the clock struck 10, the smell of something nefarious crept into our nostrils. We knew it was time, and we were ready for action. Kristin stood on one side of the crib; I took the other. She with wiping cloths, me with fresh Pampers. We managed to wrangle him out of the bottom half of his onesie. Thank goodness for front snaps! I placed the new diaper underneath his butt before removing the old one as I had seen the nurses do...just in case the fresh air caused a new rain shower. I tentatively untaped each side and found gold. I pulled the old diaper out and held up the front of the new one as a shield in case he was ready for Round 2. Sure enough, after only a couple of passes of cleaning his bottom, it became clear that more was on the way... Ka-boom! Explosive, chocolate-brown baby poop came frothing out onto the new diaper. No problem. That's why I put it there in the first place. But since it hadn't been fastened yet, it started dripping onto his nice new blanket. Kristin shouted, "He's peeing, too!" That got all over his onesie. I calmly suggested, "Hit the call button for the nurse." To which she replied, "No way. Not for a simple diaper change." By the time old Samuel soiled the third new diaper and every piece of linen within five feet of his tuckus, Kristin and I were laughing hysterically. Just then, Sam's savior, Jax barged in. She asked, "I heard him screaming, watched his heart rate shoot up on the monitor, and heard you guys laughing. What is going on in here?!" Perhaps it was the sight of multiple diapers on the counter in his crib on the floor...but it didn't take her long to figure it out. Kristin and I couldn't breathe from laughing at our own incompetence, and sure enough Jax had everything under control in about 45 seconds. In appreciation, Sam got on the internet and used jibjab to write her a thank you card. It is the last picture of the night. Enjoy.