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!
