What's Been Going On...

So Saturday was our first full day at home. It was so nice. We did a lot of chilling around the house mixed with cleaning and organizing for this lil man. We did hear some sad news on Saturday as well. There was another baby in the NICU that was born shortly after Ethan. I never talked to his parents as they live in Great Falls so they were never in the parent lounge. I did know a little bit of his story though. Well, this little baby passed away on Saturday. I feel so bad for that baby's family. It's amazing how much I know about the "dark side" of having a baby now. I call it the dark side because it was something that I tried hard to ignore until it was staring me in the face. It has been trying at times but I wouldn't trade one moment of it. As much as I would like to think we have been here to make Ethan strong I really think Ethan was the one making us stronger. Stronger as husband and wife and now strong as a whole family.

Sunday morning we got up early to head to Billings for Ethan's eye appointment on Monday. It was our first day having to get out of the door by a certain time (we had to drop the dogs off at the kennel and we had to be there right on time since she was coming in as an exception for us). Mark figured if we had to leave the house by 8:30 that he could just get up at 8. Ha! He quickly realized that he is not the only one he has to get ready. Getting things ready for a road trip and an overnight stay took a lot of work from both of us. We surprisingly made it to the dog kennel in time and no alarm going off (we had to take both vehicles to G.F. so I had Ethan in the back seat of the truck and I was just so worried that the alarm would go off when I was driving!) So Mark joined me in the truck once we got to G.F. One of us sat in the back with Ethan at all times. Well when Mark was sitting in the back he fell asleep. Ethan's alarm went off. I freaked. I yelled for Mark since he wasn't up right away (how he could sleep through the alarm I don't know because it is loud!) So once he woke up he said "what!" I said "check on Ethan!" So what does Mark do? Well he started to climb up in the front seat! He was so out of it from sleeping that he thought Ethan flew out of his car seat and was on the floor in front of the passenger seat! Well, to his defense I did point to the front seat when I screamed like a mad crazy person for him to check on Ethan. So Mark finally realized what was going on and Ethan was fine. Oh Mark!

Oh and remember we were all worried that he was constipated. Yep, once we got to the hotel he let it rip. His diaper was FULL! Then all of a sudden he had an appetite ;) We were never so happy to see a diaper full of poo!

So we spent the night in Billings since his eye appointment was on Monday at 1pm. (It is a 5 hour drive from Shelby... without a baby.... with a baby it was more like 6.5) The eye doctor said that Ethan's eyes are not completely developed yet but that they most likely will be in a month. He wants us to go back in 4 weeks to just have him check them one more time to make sure nothing crazy happens. Ethan did really well for the car ride to and from Billings. On Monday he really didn't have that much of an appetite... until we got to G.F. We stopped so I could change him (yeah, I learned how to change diapers in the car on my lap from this trip ;) and feed him. Well he didn't want to stop eating! Of course, right when we are an hour from home! So we chilled in G.F. for a good hour so he could eat ;)

Monday we had an appointment with his pediatrician. We got up bright an early since the appointment was at 9am... so I thought. Once we got there we found out it was at 12:30. Yeah, not sure where I got 9 from! So we drove around G.F. til the appointment. Well Ethan has his breathing treatment due in the morning and I took the machine and everything with so I could give it to him on the way down to the appointment. Well the machine was a little too much for the plug in adapter to handle. Since we can't go in to public places with him we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. Well, we found a plug in on the outside of a car wash building. Mark plugged it in and hung it outside the window while I was in the truck giving Ethan his treatment! What we don't do for this child! ;)

Ethan started off at home with some bad sleep patterns. He was getting up every 1.5 hours and not necessarily to eat or to have his pants changed. Just to be held. I guess I don't blame him. Spending so much time in the hospital. Sure I was there a lot but not during the nights. Last night he actually did really well. I had to wake him up at 1am to feed and change him but he didn't want either and kept sleeping. He woke up at 330 and 630. Pretty good for me! Bad part was Mark and I really did get any sleep though. The monitor kept going off. Not because Ethan wasn't breathing but because every time Ethan would move the leads (the things stuck to his chest to the monitor) kept coming off so the monitor would go off and it is really really loud and it doesn't stop until you fix the leads. Yes at one time I thought it would be nice to have the monitor as it would be a peace of mind for me but now, well now I am ready to get rid of it. It really hasn't alarmed to let us know we need to stimulate him. It has been all false alarms. False alarms that have made me mess my pants a few times! It is so loud and startling! Not to mention the instant thought of "do I need to do cpr!" Hopefully we will be able to get rid of it soon.