Happy St. Patrick's Day!
This is one of the first shirts I bought for Isaac when I was pregnant. I did not want the day to go by without Isaac dressing up.
Gr. & Gr. brought Isla. She did really well and after briefly greeting Isaac (he gave her one of his first smiles - it continuously amazes me to see the awesome power that the older sibling holds over the younger sibling, but that is a whole different post...) ...Isla wanted to look at the gardens and play areas and climb on the different chairs and go get a dipped cone at MickyD's. Happily she did not seem as disturbed about "Bro" and his wires as she did with me. Today she brought her new puzzle from her other Grandparents. It has a bunch of different latches and Isla loves opening them.
We had a pretty sunset last night after the rain stopped.
This little man woke me up with coos and little squirmy noises coming from his crib. I came over to find both of his "No-Nos" (the arm splints) off and a look of real pride on his face. I wasn't sure how they got off, but when his RN came in she just laughed. Apparently he figured out a little shimmy move last night that got them off 4 times!
See the pride...this was followed with a cunning little grin. Luckily he did not pull out his NG tube.
Unfortunately he did kick out his IV. His nurse brought in another nurse and they tried to save it, but it didn't happen. They called the CHET team (the helicopter nurses - when they aren't doing emergency transport, they do all the tricky IVs). After two collapsed veins and a miserable kiddo with a heart rate over 215, the nurses decided an anesthesiologist needed to place the IV and he was sent down to the OR after a quick nap to help him calm down. I was able to carry him down, which was very nice and an anesthesiologist with a very southern accent told him he was a "handsome little devil" and that the ladies were going to love him when he grew up, and got an IV in his arm very quickly, but had to use a less desirable type of IV. There is some talk of placing a PICC line because of the insanity of placing his IV and finding good veins.

Here's Isaac with his new IV. It is in his arm instead of his foot and is great because he doesn't need a NoNo on that arm now. The one sad thing (for Isaac) is that his pulse ox was moved to his foot. He loved looking at his little glowing ET finger.
Look at Isaac holding his cords! He loves to hold the cords with his right hand and his teddy with his left.
Here's Maryanne flushing his NG tube. I took these because he was holding her hand and looking up at her like he came right out of the brochure - it was SO sweet! Of course he looked at me and let go as soon as I got the camera. Too bad...Maryanne said we could blow it up and put it up at a benefit and patrons would just throw money at the hospital!
Look we ditched the hospital gown for some snap up footless sleepers with one arm out (these are the perfect hospital outfit because they can access anywhere.)
Isaac got a bath today after his NG tube leaked all over both of us. This is what a "bath" is in the hospital. The nurse brings in a pack of warm wipes with "BATH" printed on the logo and we wipe him down. To be fair, the wipes had some kind of soap in them and were much bigger and softer than normal wipes and they did the job, but for someone who likes 45 minute hot showers, the wipes would not have cut it. (Luckily I can use the shower in his room.)

After his "bath" he needed a new outfit - isn't this cute! He's a little rocker! (The sock is to keep his pulse ox on.)
Here's a quick summary of the past 36 hours:

- Pain: Ike needed a lot less morphine today. He took liquid tylenol today for the first time too. Hopefully we can wean him off the morphine and onto just tylenol and toradol soon.

- Mood: Isaac started smiling and being silly for brief periods yesterday and a little more today.

- Health: Isaac's tummy is making more noises everyday, which is a wonderful sign that his gut is "waking up." He didn't have adequate urine output yesterday (apparently the kidneys can also take a break, which is not ok). He started developing edema, especially in his hands and feet, so they added extra fluids to see if they could get his kidneys going. After two extra bags of fluid, he started peeing and hopefully the trend will continue. He started getting a lot of bile and other delightful stomach juices in his NG tube, which is good. They were able to take him off the vacuum and now he is on gravity only and still draining. His heart rate has totally stabilized and even when he is in pain, it doesn't go over 200. His respiratory rate is still a bit high sometimes, but is also much better.

Sat. & Sun. Night RN - Jackie (Jackie and Tammy both wanted Isaac, but Jackie got him because she was on last night, so Tammy came in to visit us.)
Sunday Nurse - Maryanne - All our nurses have been amazing, but Maryanne was truly spectacular (which surprised me, because my first impression was a little negative.) She is completely thorough, organized, attentive, and kind. She went way out of her way to do things to make both Isaac and me more comfortable. I hope we will see her again.

Isaac is sleeping now and I'm going to bed too.