Susanne and Jill got up early this morning to make sure that they could be ready in time to get to Paxton's appointments for the day. About two hours before his feeding therapy session, Susanne got a phone call stating that it had been cancelled due to someone double booking the appointment. This allowed Susanne and Jill to work with Paxton on some of his developmental skills. He appeared to be improving with his tracking and head control.
Susanne decided to trim Paxton's nails before his next appointment with his pediatrician. Without even getting passed the first nail, Susanne managed to include some of Paxton's skin in with the nail itself. Of course it bled and of course Susanne felt like the worst mom ever especially since she was a professional at clipping dog and cat nails. Unfortunately for Paxton, the only band-aids in the house were Strawberry Shortcake band-aids. Paxton had to suck it up and take what we had. He was such a strong boy that he did not even cry through that whole ordeal.
Susanne and Jill had no idea that it would take such a long time to pack the car. It took them three trips to get everything packed and ready to go. They felt like they were going on vacation for a week. They could not even imagine what it would be like if Susanne had more kids. She would definitely need to upgrade the size of her car in that case.
Susanne did not know until close to the end of Paxton's pediatrician appointment that he would be receiving vaccines and getting some blood taken that day. Susanne decided to break up the vaccines over the next two appointments to try and avoid overloading his system. He was so brave throughout everything. He only cried for a second.
Before heading to the next destination, Paxton had to be started on his NG feeding. Luckily, things went smoothly and they remembered everything that was needed. Susanne ended up having to pump in the car, which was a challenge. Thankfully Jill drove so Susanne wouldn't be putting other people's lives in danger. Thanks to Jill they remembered a cooler to store Susanne's milk in until they returned home. This would have been such a disappointment if Susanne went to all of the trouble to pump, but had to throw away the milk.
After a full afternoon of running errands, Susanne and Jill finally made it home.
Today Paxton needed to have his NG tube replaced and switched to the opposite nostril. Susanne was sad that she had to do this, especially since he had been poked and proded all day. Paxton was very upset through the whole process. This made it that much more difficult for Susanne because she HATED seeing her baby upset, especially when she was the one making him that way. All in all, the NG tube placement was a success. He survived and so did Susanne. Susanne was thankful that this only had to be done once a month...that is unless someone pulls it out.
The evening went downhill from there. Paxton became really cranky and irritable later that night. He was sweating a lot and he seemed uncomfortable. Nothing would calm him down. Luckily, he did not have a fever, but he appeared very stressed which was not good for his heart condition. This was torture for Susanne, especially since she had never seen him that way. The doctor had told Susanne to look for these clinical signs because they could be a result of the vaccinations that were given earlier that day. She was instructed to give Paxton a small dose of Tylenol if these signs appeared. Moppy saved the day by getting Susanne the Tylenol for infants. Susanne thought that once the medication was on board he would be back on track. Unfortunately, that was not the case. About an hour after giving Paxton the medication, he vomited. Susanne was worried because he had not done this since the first day he was home. She continued to cuddle with him to try to comfort him the best way she knew how. It seemed to work beautiffully and they both fell asleep on the couch. A short time later, Susanne was abruptly awakened by the sound of Paxton retching. He ended up dry-heaving, gagging, coughing, and vomiting on and off for almost another hour. During this time, Susanne decided to call her pediatrician's office to get some advice from the nurse that was on call. The nurse contacted the doctor to make sure they did not need to go to the emergency room. Susanne was instructed to hold off on one entire NG feeding for the moment. At the next feeding time, they wanted Susanne to pull the NG tube out a little bit before giving him any food. During the feeding they wanted her to monitor his heart rate and respiration rate closely. If he continued to vomit, then they would need to go to the hospital immediately. Luckily, Paxton did well throughout the rest of the night. Susanne and Jill think that it was because he slept in the middle of a love sandwich. When they finally went to bed around 4:00 am, they decided to put his sleep positioner between them on Susanne's bed so they could be ready to suction his nose and mouth if he vomited. This was so important because it would help prevent him from aspirating. They both felt more comfortable with him being right next to them instead of in the other room especially since Susanne had been sleeping through her alarm recently.
Paxton was such a trooper through it all.
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