The Unexpected (7)

Day after day for 42 days the parents rarely left her babys side, except for the few short hours they had to run home and spend time with their girls. It was a very hard time. The mother felt she needed to be here with her baby she felt if she left and something happened she would never forgive herself for leaving him. Yet she knew her girls needed her just as much. The baby would lay in his bed and just watch her, the mother spent countless hours just sitting beside his hospital bed holding his hand or rubbing his forehead. After his stomach surgery he was given a (Mickey button), this was attached on his side of stomach that went straight to his stomach. The parents had to be trained to run a feeding machine attached to a pole for feeding times. The formula would be poured into a bag hanging from the pole and the cording was ran thru the machine, the end connected to his Mickey button. After his feeding they would need to take a plastic syringe and burp the baby thru the mickey button.....this happened at every feeding. He was doing great and was finally discharged from the hospital. Going home....what an adjustment. The couple was trying to get back into some kind of normal routine with getting their kids up & ready for school, the husband getting back to work from his requested OFF time. The baby was sent home with oxygen (if needed), his feeding pole with all the extra items needed, a Oxygen Sensor machine (this had a button that was taped to the babys foot that read his oxygen level) A normal O2 reading is 99-100. On their baby the Doctors wanted at-least 70. Anytime the baby moved while asleep with this on and alarm would sound because maybe the O2 level would be 69. As the parents slept this alarm would go off and the parents would jump out of bed and race to their baby thinking the worst. Many sleepless night, too many to count times they would walk over to their precious sleeping baby to put a finger under his nose to feel his air to confirm hes still breathing. Laying beside the baby and listening to his heart....beat after beat knowing that his lil heart is sick and you CAN'T FIX IT! OT (Occupational therapy) & PT (physical therapy) and a RN would make their visit each week to work with and check on babys progress. The mothers calendar book was scheduled week after week of these appts. The baby did well. Growing and laughing, rolling over, crawling, and finally walking. All of these were a few months or so delayed due to his complicated lil life so far, but they were achieved and each day was treated as a CELEBRATION. He had his first birthday and doing great then a few months later, they got the call...... Its time to get your son scheduled for his #2 Open heart surgery. Which would be operation #4.......Oh the dreaded feeling all over again, at this time he was alil over 1 year old. To be continued...