Wednesday, May 2, 2012

MAYDAY!

You can take the title of this post however you want to!  As a distress signal, a nod to the fact that yesterday was that spring holiday, or just as a fun reminder of the month we are in.  Either of these definitions would be appropriate at this point!  I am glad we have made it to the month of May, but this past week has caused some distress (and relief) along the way!  And while I didn’t see any May Day Parades, Maypole dancing, or have any May Baskets made for me, I still mark the beginning of this month as another milestone on this journey we are on.  Since it has been almost 2 weeks since the last blog post, there is some catching up to do!  Lots of things have changed since the last post!

2 weekends ago, we had our garage sale.  We did really well, and we got rid of all kinds of STUFF that we didn’t want to move!  Including Britt’s beloved VW Cabrio, the one we affectionately named Otto.  While we were sad to see the car go, it was not practical for us as a family anymore since it did not have enough seat belts to hold all the kiddos.  Bittersweet, as we had really come to love our little “around town” convertible, and we had bought it from my brother a few years back, so it was like losing a piece of him again.  But, the money has been put aside, and the search is on for a vehicle to replace our blue car.  In the meantime, we are trying to hang in there with just one vehicle, and borrowing my Dad’s truck when the need arises!

The next week was consumed by trying to pack, keep all the big kids activities going, getting Finn through his surgery, and moving to our new house.  WHEW!  I’m still not sure how we got through it all!  Thursday was the big day for Mr. Finn.  Originally, we had been told to be at the hospital in Tulsa at 5:15am.  That meant a 3:00 am wake up call for the Weaver household!  We had already arranged for Emma, Lara and Jake to stay at my parents, but we were super thrilled when the hospital called the day before and told us Finn’s surgery had been moved to 9:30, so we didn’t need to be there until 7:30.  MUCH more manageable for us older parents!  ;)  We got to the Children’s Hospital at St. Francis right on time, and the next 2 hours seemed to CRAWL by.   There were lots of little steps that had to be completed, and each one was leading up to us saying good bye to our precious baby.  Finn was a real trooper through all of it.  For being without food or water for over 12 hours, I was surprised at how well behaved he was!  We got a surprise visit from one of our Mercy NICU nurses who now worked at St. Francis!  Here’s a video clip of that encounter:










When the 2 nurses finally came in to get him and take him to his surgery to repair his left inguinal hernia, one said to the other, “I think I’ll just carry him.  These little ones just roll around in these big cribs so it is easier.”  That actually calmed me down a little bit – to know he was being cradled and loved as they took him off into the big unknown.  It was actually easier to watch him go than I thought it would be.  I knew God was in control, and this would be great.  It was almost an hour before the surgeon came to get us from the waiting room.  He told us everything went well and Finn was fine as we walked back to a small consultation room.  Once we were in there, he told us Finn was in recovery and doing well, and that this was one of the largest inguinal hernias he had ever seen, and then explained how he repaired it.  He also told us how they used a camera to look to the right side to make sure there wasn’t a hernia there as well, and all was clear.  When he was done with us, we went back out to the waiting room to WAIT some more.  Finn had to meet some markers before we could be with him, so we took that opportunity to call friends and family (and update Facebook).  It was almost 30 more minutes before we got to see our sweet boy.  He was in a hospital crib, in a small curtained off recovery area by the operating rooms.  He had a nurse with him, and he was sleeping.  He was still in the little yellow gown, and looked kind of pale.  He was very still, too.  It was so strange to see him hooked up to all the monitors again!  And to watch his numbers on the screen and hear the alarms – it was like we were back in the NICU!  She said he had been sleeping for a bit, but after we watched him for another 10 minutes or so, she said that we could wake him and offer him some sugar water.   When it came time to pick him up and feed him that bottle, I had to manage all the cords, too.  So surreal!  He O2 levels were a little low while in recovery, so they had some supplemental oxygen blowing up his nose while we were there, but he wasn’t even on a nasal cannula.  It felt so good to have him back in my arms – even with the strange smells, the endless cords, the beeping, and all the other hospital distractions.  I had a hard time getting him and I comfortable in the rocking chair we were sitting in, so Britt ended up feeding him the bottle.  After another 15-20 minutes, we finally had Finn’s O2 saturation up enough to be transferred to the floor he would stay on.

Once we were settled in the room, there was really nothing to do except wait it out.  Those first several hours Finn just slept and slept and slept.  They wanted him to drink 3 of the 2oz glucose water bottles and keep those down before we tried formula.  Later in afternoon, he had his first dose of pain medicine. We finally got to give him his first food in almost 24 hours that evening.  He kept that down, and we felt like recovery was going really well.  As the night closed in, we made our “beds” on the couch and recliner in the room (not a good place to sleep AT ALL), and hoped the overnight would go well.  Finn woke up for his typical middle of the night feeding, and he seemed to be running a fever.  Britt started feeding him while I called the nurse to have someone come take his temperature.  Sure enough, he had a little bit higher temperature than they wanted.  She went to get more meds, and Britt was still feeding him.  The nurse tried to administer the syringe of sticky acetaminophen into the baby’s cheek while he was drinking the formula.  The result?  PUKE all over Dad!  Funny, but not really.  I felt bad for my baby who felt bad enough to throw up, and I felt bad for Dad.  Covered in wet sticky (stinky) baby formula puke.  GROSS.

After we got that cleaned up and everyone settled back in, the rest of the night went smoothly.  We were seen on rounds about 8:00am, and we had hoped we would be released by mid-morning – we had to get back to Stillwater to meet the cable company at our new house.  But, since he had the fever overnight, they wanted to keep him a few more hours.  DARN!  We had basically packed everything up and were ready to bolt!  We passed the morning – so slowly – by taking about the upcoming move.  Britt even left the hospital to go to Best Buy – we still had not spent the gift card we won a few weeks back!  We were finally released to go home a little after noon.  The cable guy was due at our house about 1:30.  We still needed to take the TV over, too, so we knew we would not make it.  Lucky for us, we have Nana!  She went to our old house, got a TV and the DVR box, and went to our new house to meet the cable guy!  WHO, OF COURSE, WAS LATE!

So, the next 4 days were a whirlwind of packing, moving, crying, breakdowns, baby recovering from surgery, big kids frustrated with the process, friends helping, trucks being rented and returned, $100 trips to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart moving moving moving and cleaning!  WHEW!  Oh – and Volleyball, T-ball and dance thrown in there, too!  On Friday night, Britt and I spent the night on the floor of the living room after dragging the mattresses from each of Emma and Lara’s rooms while Finn was in his cradle beside us (big kids were on night 3 at Camp Nana and Grandpa!).  Saturday night, we all stayed at the new house in our own beds.  By Sunday night, 90% of our stuff had been moved, but only about 20% unpacked.  Britt took Monday off to try to finish.  I spent several hours at the old house Monday night cleaning, and we FINALLY finished cleaning Tuesday night.  Now, the new house is still a hot mess!  LOTS of unpacking and organizing to do, but it is so NICE!  We are all enjoying the extra room, the girls are loving being in their own spaces, Britt and I love our huge room, and Jake loves being in the same room with Finn while he sleeps (we don’t have a baby monitor yet, and we are pretty far from Finn when he is sleeping, so when we go to bed, we get Finn and put him in his cradle next to our bed. I don’t think Jake minds!)  If we work hard this weekend, I think we will be more settled before the new week starts.  We need it.  Living in chaos is hard!

Life in the “75” is good.  I have been a resident of this town off and on for my entire 37 years of live, and I haven’t lived outside the 74074 zip code since Kindergarten; not north of 6th street.  (Not even east of Western until 3 years ago!)  We now have a new zip code.  It ends in a 5.  So strange for me!  But, the neighborhood is very nice, close to the lake and its awesome walking trail, and come to find out, we know several people in the area.  I think it is going to be good.  Once we get settled.  I still can’t find anything in my kitchen… Hence the picture:


T-ball games and practices 2-3 time a week.  A Volleyball tournament this weekend.  Dance recital is just around the corner.  Finn goes in for his post op in 2 more weeks.  15 more school day mornings.  Then, it’s summer!  Hopefully, things will calm down a bit then!

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