Never Ending Appointments

Despite what we were told Friday afternoon, we actually ended up being able to go home that night. Thank Heaven! I had so much to do. A couple of unexpected days away from home can really throw you off, especially when you do a little work from home. Anyhow, we were sent home with a long list of instructions. Flovent twice a day, zopanex every six hours, and prelone twice a day, with motrin as needed. In addition, we needed to follow up with the pediatrician, cardiologist, and ENT. Plus, I had to schedule my own fetal echo. That was an instruction from Miles' cardiologist. He wants Primary technicians to do some special ultrasounds to make sure that everything is normal with little Henry's heart. There's not any indication of problems currently, but there likelihood of a second child being born with congenital heart disease is increased about 10% when another child has it, so we're being safe.

Miles was very happy to be able to come home and especially happy that he was no longer tethered to a bunch of machines. He was also excited to get home to his big boy potty. That's definitely still a work in progress though. More of a novelty to him than a rule. He loves that he's able to move around the house, and he's so happy to be back to his "Bird" (Follow that Bird is his new favorite movie).

Things have been relatively relaxed for Miles since we got home, but sadly, I cannot say the same for Ben and I. We're both kind of running on empty right now. It seems like we've been inundated with never ending appointments and commitments and unfortunately the ones that we've had to keep haven't always been the ones that we've wanted to keep (we are so sorry Brooklyn and so proud of your decision to get baptized). Saturday was spent running to different pharmacies, giving treatments, and trying to catch up on a little bit of work, homework, and sleep in between. The plan was to get Miles in to his pediatrician that evening, but I revert back to my previous complaint about our small practice.

Sunday we met with the bishop to discuss our situation and to try to come up with a viable solution to our church-going dilemma. As it is currently, Ben has to be at the 2nd and 3rd hours to teach primary. That gives me the sacrament hour, but Ben needs to be able to do that too, and I would like to be able to go to R.S. and or Sunday School at least sometimes, but for the time being anyway, Miles just can't go to church......not our germy ward anyway. No offense guys. The bishop agreed that something needed to happen so that we at least both had the opportunity to go to sacrament meeting. The solution that he came up with certainly isn't perfect, and I must admit that I kind of have my doubts that it will really be any different than bringing Miles to our ward, but I'm absolutely willing to give it a try. He thought that, assuming that schedules didn't conflict, maybe it would work for all three of us to try attending the singles ward sacrament meeting. Yes, Miles would still be there, but his thought was that there wouldn't be any bugary little kids to infect him, so it might be a little better. Ben would then be able to keep his primary calling. Although, I would still be left without the last two hours. The solution to that would be Ben coming home and giving us his lesson. I actually kind of look forward to that. I was also thinking that maybe prior to his lessons, I would prepare the little extra project (he teaches 4 year olds, so there are a lot of games and art projects) and maybe laminate it to give Miles something physical to play with. Plus, Ben could always use it as the example in his lesson. I guess in order for that to work, this years Primary Partners needs to not be out of stock everywhere. Luckily, the 4 year old lessons are pretty general, so we've been using an old one and adapting where needed.

This morning, I talked to all of the doctor's offices. We're keeping our appointment with the ENT on the 18th. When I called to make the cardiologist appointment, even with the orders from Primary, the soonest they could get us in was March 15th. Ridiculous!! They were the ones that requested we see him within two weeks. Luckily, I already had an appointment scheduled for the 1st. It's definitely not within 2 weeks of discharge, but at least it's not the 15th. I have my fetal echo scheduled the next day, so we're going to be pretty busy up at Primary this coming month. Ben and I also feel pretty strongly that another surgery is coming, so we're gearing up for that too. Kind of sucks that as soon as we get some money saved up for new carpet we have some disaster. I really want my carpet! I guess we'll just see what happens after taxes. Maybe we'll still be able to do it.

This afternoon, we finally got in to his pediatrician. Things are looking pretty good. His oxygen levels were right around 93%, not perfect, but nothing requiring extra. He's gained a little weight, I'm sure because he's eating and drinking much better and not throwing up. He's not dehydrated, and most importantly, he's happy and active. Dr. Ditty told me that he didn't want to get me too scared on Wednesday, but he was very worried about Miles when we took him in. He said that sometimes after working so hard to breath, he's seen kids just give up, and that's what Miles looked like. Like he was too tired to try anymore. Terrifying. It's difficult as a parent of a baby to know when it's time to seek outside help. He was still breathing okay and had no fever, but Miles is really the one that decides when he's done, and unfortunately, he can't verbally communicate that, so we just have to be very aware of his actions.

I think that for now we're doing pretty well. I do wish that we could get some things figured out sooner that I have them scheduled, but I guess that's life. Now it's time to get back on track. I have a very messy house that isn't cleaning itself, and I think we're just about out of clean underwear, so I better get on that too.

Until next time, everyone have a happy Valentine's Day! I'm sure you'll all be thinking of poor bored little us while you're all in Mexico or Las Vegas or wherever you may be celebrating. Jk. (I could use some suggestions for something creative and fun that I could do for Ben--and I think it probably needs to include Miles too)