Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Day After My Birthday

I had such a great day yesterday. Beau did a wonderful job of making my birthday special even though we were away from all of our family and friends. We had a great time at the pool with Reed. I'm a lot more careful than I use to be but I'm a bit of a sun worshiper so I loved it. The weather was perfect. Our dinner was great as well. After dinner we walked to Ben & Jerry's in Georgetown for a little ice cream. All of this makes for a great day in my book anyway but little Gaines had a surprise of his own.

When I went to visit yesterday he was on 30% oxygen! I was praying as I walked in that he was still around 33% so when I saw 30 I almost fell out. All day yesterday and last night he was between 30-32% and when I left this morning's visit he was at 30 again. Such an awesome feeling. They've been telling us lately to watch him more week to week than day to day so Beau asked how he was last week at this time. Last week he was between 37-40% so you can see, he's had a great week.

The other big news is that they started letting him practice feeding from a bottle yesterday. He only gets 5 minutes twice a day to try. Both times yesterday he took 5 ccs. This is very little but at least the little guy is getting some practice. It's still tough from him with the CPAP but hopefully now when that comes off, he'll know what to do to eat.

Yesterday was probably the best day I've had since we've been here. Gaines made big progress, I got to spend a lot of time in the sun with two of my boys, good food all day long, great weather, lots of well wishes and I even got to use a brand new tube of toothpaste yesterday. I know that sounds random but to me its one of life's little pleasures. Everyone's got their little weird things...that's just one of mine. Beau is going to die when he reads that...I don't think I've ever told him about that.

A weird thing happened yesterday. We were walking and all of a sudden all of the street noise stopped and it was just quiet...for a whole minute or so. It was just so weird. DC is never quiet. There is always something going on. This is a great city but the noise and constant movement here drives me crazy. It is so loud around here and that little moment of quiet was so nice.

Everything is still great here today. Gaines is still doing well. His electrolytes are kind of out of whack from the diuretics so he's getting sodium chloride, ammonia chloride and potassium for that.

We plan to spend as much time at "home" today as we can. Yesterday was such a big day and we did tons of walking so we are enjoying just being lazy. Of course we'll still visit Gaines but that walk to this hospital is nothing to us now. Remember how hard it was for me at first? We've all come a long way since this all started ALMOST 3 MONTHS AGO! Hopefully Gaines will continue to make good progress in the coming weeks and we'll all be able to go home as a family.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Oh, and a very happy birthday wish to my sister Abby! We love you Abby! My mom had to leave my 3 year old birthday party to go to the hospital with her and my life has never been the same. Mostly for the better... :)

Love to all,

Brittany

6 comments:

Lori said...

So good to hear Gains #'s are dropping, that's fantastic! I was hoping you would have a fun day and you definately did. What was the small gift you got at lunch?

Amanda said...

That's great that Gaines got in on the birthday action and gave you such a wonderful birthday gift- 30% is great progress. Glad you got to treat yourself at Ben and Jerry's in Georgetown. That's one of my favorite spots in town. And it's a fun walk.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! I have been reading your blog for a few weeks and following Gaines's progress but this is my first time posting! I do not live in DC (I actually live 2 hours away in the country in central VA), but I have an office there that I go in to 1 day a week and I totally understand what you mean about it never being quiet. I can't wait to get back to the country every Friday night. DC is crazy!

Anyhow, I am glad Gaines's oxygen is down...My son, who is now 7MO, was in the NICU due to fluid on his lungs so I also know what it is like to wait for the oxygen levels to drop. It was rough, but I don't regret having to go through one minute of it. That experience truly made me appreciate life and the normalcy we can so take advantage of (at least I did).

I pray for you guys to get back to the normalcy of your life outside of DC and to be able to take Gaines home.

Thomas and Jamie said...

SO GOOD to hear - er, read - some positivity and upbeatness in your voice!! Congratulations on the milestones with Gaines and hope you had a great b-day!!

Jennifer said...

Happy Birthday...so glad you had such a wonderful day - in the big city! I know you are homesick - but I just LOVE DC..and Georgetown is one of the best parts!! How exciting..all that progress Gaines is making!

Beth said...

Great to hear that you had such a wonderful day on your birthday!! I'm proud of Gaines for helping that along also!
That's funny about you and your sister. My daughter's birthday is Monday, and my son's bithday is Tuesday so we have the same "problem" in our household!