Big Day in the Big House

James got his incision drain and catheter removed today, so it's much easier for him to move around -- yay! He was standing up in his crib when I arrived around noon.

He also got a new set of earmolds for his hearing aids (another yay!) and had a visit from the dietician, so it was quite a busy morning for him.

And he's definitely teething -- Mike felt one of his bottom teeth poking through. Hooray!!

He's doing very well with his recovery except for the weight loss -- the doctors won't spring him from the Big House until he shows some weight gain. He had a number of bottles today but mostly smaller volumes, which is not too surprising (after all, he eats less when he's just had a cold, and this is major surgery!) He'll be getting some food through his tube overnight and we'll see how things look tomorrow.

I understand why they want to make sure things are on track with his weight, but I'm disappointed that this would keep him in the hospital, since the current plan is "feed him a lot", which we can do at home. But presumably they have other options in their back pocket if that doesn't work so well -- we haven't asked about them and hopefully won't have to find out! (We weren't really expecting him to be released until sometime between Wednesday and Friday, so I guess this isn't really delaying things, but somehow it feels like it is!)

This hospital stay is in many ways less stressful than when the boys were in the NICU, but one good thing about the NICU is that most nights we could go home. On the 7th floor, the parents pretty much have to do 24-hour shifts -- and a night in the hospital is not a restful one, with nurses coming in every hour, rounds starting at the crack of dawn, and various baby-maintenance tasks in between. And that's not even counting the emotional toll of having to see your child in pain and the cognitive toll of helping to make treatment decisions and keeping up with all the relevant medical information. Mike has been doing the overnights while I've been home with Mattie, and it's really starting to wear him down. I don't understand how the hospital expects parents to keep this up for days on end -- you would think that for kids who have somewhat extended stays like this that there could be some slightly increased nursing attention or some other solution so that a parent could get more than 2-3 hours sleep.

On a lighter note, I had to laugh at the note from Mattie's babysitter today: "had a bath after lunch because he rubbed his spitup into his hair and pooped on his leg". Lovely! I figure this is equal opportunity for the twins -- if James has his poop stories shared on the blog, it's only fair to share one of Mattie's as well!