Aurora Borealis

All’s better now. They did their usual good work. The diagnosis was simple and correct. We’re back to our normal computing load.

If we’re a bit unresponsive for the next little bit, it’s because our main server for the home network has died. We’re planning on visiting our favorite local computer store in the very near future to remedy the problem, but one never quite knows how these things will end up playing out.

Indeed they got Cardinal Cadette on the surgical schedule for yesterday.  She came through surgery fine, and we made it home this morning a little after 9:00.  Mr. Tldz headed off to work just after we got home.  Agent Murphy spent the bulk of the day yesterday with one of our neighbors.

Cardinal Cadette actually kept the surgical dressing on this time until Dr. Lipsky saw her this morning.  (Not the eye shield, but at least the dressing.  He said he made it more compact this time.)  So now we do the eye drop regimen again, and she can see out of her left eye now — at least some, but she won’t be wearing her contact lens in that eye for at least a week until Dr. Lipsky checks it again.  He checked the prescription of her lenses while she was under anesthesia, and it sounds like the pair we get next month will be a bit stronger.

The eye looks more sore and tender this time than either did with the previous surgery — but the left eye did look more tender than the right after the initial surgery.  It makes me really hate putting those drops in.  But at least today she’s not fighting me as much as usual.

Hopefully there will be no more surgeries that require an overnight stay.  Ideally, there will be no more eye surgeries at all.  (From the way Dr. Lipsky talks, I’m not so sure of that.  He says he thought about our Cardinal all night.  I know he’s concerned about glaucoma.  It’s a standard risk of cataract surgery, but she seems to be at higher risk because of how small her eyes are.  So far no sign of it.)  But if we can go at least 8 weeks before we need another one, we should be able to do it as an honest to goodness day surgery — in and out.  We know surgery to remove her extra toes should be in and out in a day like Agent Murphy’s was.  We’ll have our initial consult with the orthopedic surgeon in late October, and she’ll be plenty old to not need overnight observation following anesthesia.

Poor little girl has had to go through so much already.  And she’s such a good baby.

Since I know I’ve been quiet of late, let me just hit a few highlights now, some of which I may expound upon later.

Tired is the basic state of existence right now.  And busy.  I’m calling our insurance company seemingly every day, so add frustrated to that.  Will be glad of the day when the mail doesn’t routinely contain a medical bill or statement of some sort.

Agent Murphy has had a veritable explosion in verbalizing, which is very good and lots of fun for us.  But he still has lots of work to do.

I have thus far managed to get Cardinal Cadette’s contact lenses in and out as needed.  Initially she had extended wear lenses so I was only dealing with them once a week, for which I was greatly relieved.  But that size wasn’t working for her and the size she needed to move to isn’t available in extended wear.  So as of Friday afternoon we’re dealing with them daily.  I guess at least we’ll get used to it more quickly this way.  Right now, we’re still at she cries, I cry…  Also on Friday afternoon we learned the Cardinal will have to have another surgery on her left eye — which means another overnight in the hospital for the two of us.  If her doctor has his druthers, the surgery will be this Thursday.  I guess if that doesn’t work, it’ll be next Thursday.  I have to talk to the surgical coordinator on Monday, and then we have to figure out what to do with Agent Murphy during the times I’m at the hospital and Mr. Tldz has to be at work.

Yesterday we had the complete baptismal rite for Cardinal Cadette, to round out the basic sacrament she received on July 4.  It was a nice afternoon visiting with a few friends.  Some were unable to join us due to other commitments, and some we never heard back from — including people who always respond one way or the other — so we’re hoping our e-mail invitations actually reached everyone we sent them to.  We are very glad Grandma and Aunt Katherine (the Cadette’s godmother) were able to be here from Chicago.

We made it through the left eye, too, and got home a little after 9:00 this morning.  Cardinal Cadette managed to get her dressing and eye shield off this time almost immediately after getting to our post-surgery observation room.  I told the nurses Dr. Lipsky wanted to be called if she got the dressing off, so they did and he ordered that she go ahead an begin the eye drop regimen.

We’d been doing pretty well with the drops at home.  My technique got better and it was going along pretty well.  Then Tuesday or Wednesday the Cadette decided she’d had enough, and now she’s really clenching her eye shut and fighting me a lot.  It’s really unfortunate, too, because the left eye looks more sore and tender to me after surgery than the right eye did.  Maybe it’s just that she got the dressing off so soon.  It also looks more goopy than the right eye did.  But Dr. Lipsky examined her this morning and said the eye looks good and just to watch it. If the discharge increases, we’re supposed to call him.  Otherwise, we’ll see him in the office in a week.  Her contacts may be in by then, too.  (He was ordering them as he was walking down the hall after surgery to come talk to me.)  Heaven help me, we’ll see if I can get the contacts in her eyes.  He’s commented on how small her eyes are, even relative to other babies.  I guess I’ll have to pick my poison: try to do contact lenses when she fights me even on drops, or try to keep heavy glasses on her when she won’t even keep the little eye shield on.

Dr. Lipsky said that in 20 years he hasn’t had an infant get the shield off so quickly.  And while he was examining her this morning he commented that it’s amazing how much control she has already of her arms and hands.  Makes it challenging for us!

Cardinal Cadette came through her first cataract surgery just fine on Thursday afternoon.   We were home a little after 9:00 on Friday morning.  (Because of her young age, we have to stay overnight so they can make sure she tolerated the anesthesia okay.)  Her doctor (who I really like) keeps saying, “She did great.”  Of course, he also keeps reminding me that this is just the beginning “of an 8-10 year mountain climb” of which this surgery is the easiest part.  Friday morning, when he did her post-op check, he volunteered to put in her first dose of drops for the day (she has to use four different drops) and showed me some tricks for getting them in, so my technique is definitely getting better now.

Next week we do it all again on the left eye.

Fortunately her doctor says “no harm, no foul” if she doesn’t keep her eye shield on — because it keeps coming off!

This afternoon our pastor baptized Cardinal Cadette, with just Mr. Tldz, Agent Murphy, and me in attendance.  (He squeezed us into his schedule before leaving town tomorrow.) We will still have the formal, complete rite on August 21st as originally scheduled, so we can have godparents, family and friends there.  But we wanted her to have the sacrament since she’ll be undergoing cataract surgery with general anesthesia both this week and next week.  Like her brother at his baptism, she slept through the whole thing.  Monsignor even commented that it’s unusual to have a baby behave that well.

After being driven to Cardinal Cadette’s first appointment at the pediatrician yesterday (Sadly, we learned it was the last day there for the pediatrician we have seen the most.  Glad we got to see her one last time.  She’s being replaced by another woman, starting today, so I guess we may meet her next time.), as of today, I’m officially able to drive again.  So Cardinal Cadette and I loaded into the car and went to the drive-thru ATM and the McDonald’s drive-thru for a chocolate shake (for me, not her), then to Walmart for a couple of miscellaneous items.  (We love the stroller frame for the infant car seat.  Great find, Aunty N.!)  It all felt very exciting to me.  The Cadette slept through all of it.

So I consider that my “dry run.”  Cardinal Cadette has a pre-op appointment with the ophthalmologist first thing in the morning, and then we have to swing by Scottish Rite for an anesthesiology consult.  I didn’t want that to be my first time driving in two months, while also sleep deprived.

And, yes, that means I’m settling into a largely sleepless (okay, spurts here and there) routine with the Cadette.  And that’s with nearly full-time help this week.  We’ll see how I do next week with only part-time help.  And then after that I should be on my own with both kiddos.  Yikes!

The Cardinal did fine with her overnight feedings last night, so she was cleared to come home today.  Mr. Tldz and I went in to the hospital around 11:30 this morning, in time to get her ready for her noon feeding.  We got our discharge information, she got all those ridiculous wires and monitors removed, we got her dressed in her coming home duck outfit, packed up all our stuff, and headed home.  We arrived around 1:30.  Agent Murphy was napping, so we were able to get the Cadette a little settled.  She spent some time in her bassinet and her swing, then had a bottle from Daddy on the couch, during which Agent Murphy gave her two kisses and The Dog sniffed her head.  Then she spent some time in her pack n play bassinet in the dining room, before returning to her bassinet in Mommy and Daddy’s room.  Soon it’ll be time to get her up for her next meal.

Our future for the next few weeks will be feedings and sleeping in snatches where possible, punctuated by a series of doctor’s appointments.  But it’s good to have our little girl home!

Yesterday about an hour before Mr. Tldz and I were going to head out to visit Cardinal Cadette, the nurse practitioner called and said they wanted me to come in and spend the night to do the Cadette’s nighttime feedings.  Since she’s been giving the night nurses trouble with desats (drops in oxygen level) and drops in heart rate but doesn’t do that when I’m feeding her, they wanted to see what would happen if I feed her at night in order to prepare her to go home.  So I packed some items and we headed off.  Mr. Tldz stayed the couple of hours we’d originally planned, then came home to take care of Agent Murphy.

We arrived for Cardinal Cadette’s 3:00 p.m. feeding, which included a consult with a feeding specialist.  It was with the woman I really liked from the day before.  She observed both me and Mr. Tldz feeding the Cardinal and said we both did beautifully and our little girl didn’t have any problems during that feeding.  Cardinal Cadette and I moved to the nesting room starting with her 9:00 p.m. feeding.  When the nurse practitioner called she hadn’t explained any of this, so I’d thought I’d be camped out in the recliner in the Cadette’s pod.  But it turns out they have a private room/bath for these “nesting” sessions.  It’s still in the NICU and the little one was still on monitors with the nurses, but we were somewhat removed and on our own — a lot more like what it will be like when she comes home.  I fed her in the nesting room at 9:00 p.m., 12:00 a.m., 3:o0 a.m., and 6:00 a.m.  I had to pace her a few times when she got to guzzling, but mostly she paced herself.  And she didn’t have any desats or drops in heart rate during these feedings.  Maybe Mommy’s familiar heart rate, breathing, scent, and all that help her to regulate herself.

Although she did so well, because she had such a hard time Friday night/Saturday morning, they want to watch her for another day.  We’re hoping she’ll be able to come home tomorrow afternoon.  Oh, and I should mention that her cord stump fell off yesterday.  Hooray!