An update...

So I am finally getting around to posting an update! Ok so on Thursday Mark was going to head back home to get the dogs and get back to work. We got to the hospital and Ethan didn't have a good night and while we were there he was not doing good either. He was dropping his heart rate a lot and they were having to bag him. So Mark decided to stay another day. We talked to the lung Dr. and he wasn't able to open the lung xrays that G.F. sent over so he wasn't able to view them. I found this a little frustrating since we were kind of anxious to see what a lung specialist had to say about him. He will be working on looking at them though and let us know even though we are not there. Billings NICU has a "rule" that parents can not be in the NICU between 7-8 am and pm because that is when they have their shift changes. (I am not a fan of this rule... Seattle and G.F. seem to handle the shift change just fine with parents in the room.) Anyway, so we went to dinner with my mom and got to the hospital at 7:30pm and called the nurse to see if we could go back. She said she wouldn't be ready for us to come back til 8. So we sat in the waiting room. When we were finally able to go back we found out that he had a little episode while we were waiting. He dropped his heart rate and they had to bag him. We were going to give him a bath (which Mark still hasn't got to help with a bath yet so I was kind of excited for it) but we skipped that since we figured he needed his rest.

Friday Ethan had a follow up eye test. Dr. Weever (the eye dr) said that he thinks his eyes were the worst when we were in Seattle this last time. He said that they were stage 2 zone 2 in Seattle. Then on Tuesday they were barely stage 2. Now he says that he is stage 1. He can barely see the ridge in one eye and nothing in the other. This is all good news. It means that Ethan most likely will not need eye surgery. He will still have eye test done weekly and they will still be read by Dr. Weever. The dr. said that he would like to see Ethan in person again but not necessarily while he is an inpatient... meaning after he is discharged. My mom and Mark both left on Friday. My aunt Diane came up though to spend the night with me and see Ethan. She hadn't seen him since he was born. We went to Ciao Mambos for dinner... it was excellent.

Today (Saturday) we got up early to clean the Ronald McDonald house and pack up. We didn't know for sure what time we would be leaving but we knew that it could be as early as 9am. My sister Jenna was going to come up with her kids today if we didn't fly out until the afternoon but we ended up flying out at 10am so I didn't get to visit with her. My niece Madison and her mom was in Billings this morning too and they were going to stop by but we missed them as well. I guess this means we will have to make a trip to Cody sometime... or they can visit us anytime in G.F. ;) The flight back was fine. A little bumpy but some how I fell asleep and of course our little man was asleep the whole time. We are in different room again at the hospital. No window this time though darn it! Ethan had a rough start at G.F. as he was dinging high and then all of a sudden ding low. This went on while I was trying to take a nap and I would jump up when I heard the "red alarm" which of course made it harder because I would try to concentrate on what was going on after just waking up. Mark came to pick me up since we didn't leave a vehicle at the hospital. He held him for a few minutes and then Ethan started up again. He started to drop his numbers then his heart rate. Ugh... it is so hard to watch sometimes. I can't decide what is harder... watching this when he was first born when we didn't know what to do or now when we watch and wonder if there is anything more we can do.

Ok so for a few funny stories. Mark. So we have been to a few hospital now and there is always one nurse that asks "So do you watch Grey's Anatomy?" My response... I laugh! For those of you that don't know there is a guy named Mark Sloan on Grey's Anatomy. His nickname is McSteamy. Mark has a tendency to introduce himself to people as "Mark Sloan" not just Mark. I told him he needs to start introducing himself as "McSteamy" to any new nurses we meet ;)

So then the other day we were driving to G.F. and I was crocheting. I showed Mark that I didn't have much yarn left. So what does he do? He takes it from me and puts it out the window! We were driving down the interstate with the yarn blowing in the wind! Then when we were driving to Billings he opened up the center console and moved it up and down and said "Hi, I'm the center console!" Then he had clams the other night and was talking to me with the clam shells! Oh, my poor little son. His dad is a little crazy and this is what he is going to teach Ethan! Ok... really though... it's more like poor me! I am going to have 2 boys putting my yarn out the window soon! I have to say though... I love Mark more than anything. He seems to always make me laugh when I need it the most!