CICU

Written the end of April:

We ended up being in the CICU five extra days because of Christian's Rhinovirus.  And since he was sick, he couldn't share a room with any other babies, which meant Christian got his very own room and very own nurse (usually there is one nurse to two patients if the patient is doing well)!  But he wasn't super sick, just a little cold that he had to get over, so it was pretty relaxed for the nurses. 

{It was so nice seeing him smile :) }

One day, I left to pump and when I came back they had removed Christian's dressing on his incision.  I had no warning!  I wasn't able to mentally prepare myself to see his incision.

{Right after they removed the dressing}

{Jake loved it when they'd put these little pants on Christian :)  They didn't make them small enough for him but he'd get cold so they'd put them on him}

{Taking a little nap in his big boy bed.  They moved him from the little plastic bed to a crib}

{He looks so small in the big crib}

Christian had some pretty awesome nurses.  Jessica was Christian's nurse for two days when he was in the PICU with RSV and we were lucky enough to get her again for two days this time.  Since it was pretty laid back for the nurses, Jess and I would pretty much just talk all day (while we were taking care of Christian, of course).  We're Facebook friends now :)

{Cute Jess w/ Christian}

After they were able to wean Christian off of the hi flo, they put him on regular oxygen and after a few hours, they moved us to the floor.  And that meant he no longer had his own nurse.  The nurses on the floor seemed pretty busy and spread pretty thin.  I was glad Christian was able to do most of his healing from his surgery while he was in the CICU (most babies/patients don't get to do that).  Otherwise, I don't know if he would have gotten the care he needed.  And that also meant a different team of doctors, nurse practitioners, etc for him.  Since we were in the CICU for 8 days, we got comfortable and familiar with the doctors there (Dr. Delgado - loved her! and she was seriously there all the time, Eric - N.P., Trudy - N.P., and the awesome respiratory therapists).  It was hard going from 24 hour one-on-one care to being all by ourselves in a private room, but at least we had a little privacy. 

{Christian and daddy chillin', watching a little TV, in our room on the floor}

{Taking a little snooze}

{They were putting a new feeding tube in so I had to sneak a shot of him without any tubes on his face.  I knew it would be a while before he'd be tube free}

I stayed at the hospital the first night and Jake stayed the second night after we were moved out of the CICU.  And we let them know we were ready to go home ASAP.  We had been at Primary's from April 17th to the 26th.  So they said they would discharge us.  But Christian had to go home on a feeding tube, which was pretty intimidating and scary.  He'll have the feeding tube for a total of 3-4 weeks (hopefully not longer), but he can have a bottle with thickened formula 2-3 times a day to help keep him practiced for when he can eat orally again.