So we'd only been home a handful of hours last night when Seth started wheezing.
If you've been reading for any length of time, you'll know how serious that is for us. He was as bad as I've heard and seen him since everything that happened in Indiana. After breathing treatments with two different medications and several trips outside, though, he had improved enough that he was showing some personality again, which is always a big tell for him...helps me to know just how sick he is if he's laying around doing nothing, since this is a kids that is never, ever doing nothing.
Plus, at that point it was coming on morning, and he always improves during the day. My mom was spending the night and helping, so I could have taken him in, but I didn't want to expose Evany to the emergency room and I had left all her pumped milk at the NICU accidentally. So we decided to soldier through and he did improve quite a bit as the morning wore on and I continued giving him nebulizer treatment. It was strange this time, though, because he didn't have any symptoms of illness, and the wheezing was really the only thing going on. With Ava, her asthma started the same way...she would wheeze when she was sick and then, as she got older, she started wheezing randomly, until she was diagnosed with asthma and got put on preventative medication.
Still, though, it was not the first night home I was expecting, but that's always how it seems to go.
But we made up for it today. We had to make an emergency Target run (I know you've had those, right? Where you cannot get by one more hour without some necessity? ) and let me tell you, it was an experience. Evany was the most well behaved of all four kids.. Ava and Jace were acting possessed and Seth kept throwing everything out of the cart. Adjusting to normal life again is going to be interesting.
Speaking of Evany, she is the easiest baby ever. That's not actually true...Seth was also a very easy baby, but since he's not the baby anymore, she gets the title. She eats every three hours, when I also change her diaper and make sure her temperature is staying up, and then she goes back down until her next feeding. That's the one plus to the NICU...kids come home with an awesome routine already in place.
Seth was pretty interested in her today...I have some cute pictures of him meeting her for the first time at the hospital, but the one above is actually from this evening, when we were trimming the tree. He actually kind of likes her, or is at least very curious about her, which is a switch from the other day when he burst into tears when he saw Jace pay attention to her.
I got a few questions about what Evany is attached to. A condition of her discharge was that she use an apnea monitor for a while. She is still having apnea and bradycardic episodes, so I'm learning how to deal with carrying a tiny baby around tethered to a bag that's bigger than she is. It's a bummer as I had planned to wear her most of the time, but luckily she seems happy being swaddled in the bassinet in the stroller and I can throw the bag with the monitor in it in the basket. Seth will just have to learn to walk.
We also had a little setback just before discharge yesterday. They did an echo of her heart and found a couple of issues, one of which is pretty inconsequential and one that is a little more concerning. We'll be following up with our Cardiologist in a month, and will find out more about what's going on then. Because Seth has a PDA and PFO that have still not closed, we already have a Cardiologist, so it will be nice to get in a little faster and easier than if we were brand new patients.
Overall, though, I'll take Vivi being home on a monitor over still being in the NICU any day! I'm still reeling about her being released so soon. It's awesome. The kids only have one more week of school before Christmas vacation, so we'll get a few weeks to do nothing and have no therapy, which will be great.
Even though the kids were basically crazy today, it was so nice being able to hang out with them and decorate the tree and listen to Christmas music together. Now I'm just praying that we can get through the weekend with Seth with minimal breathing issues.
Alright, time for a feeding. I hope everyone's Saturday has been going great! If you've emailed or called me recently, I will eventually call or write you back. I promise. No, really. I never even looked at my computer or phone until just a little while ago, since the kids and I were having a very hands on day today.
