Drug Induced Sleep...Again

Paxton had a rough night last night. He would wake up from a dead sleep wailing in pain. He was uncomfortable, but it was hard to exactly tell from what. Susanne had been noticing that his stomach had been more distended recently and he was more flatulent than he had ever been before in his life. Over the last few days, the nurses had been giving him glycerin suppositories, stool softeners, and Mylicon to try to alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, it did not seem to regulate itself out. Even though this was one of the major issues that had developed over the last few days, Susanne did not think that this was the reason that he was waking up randomly in the middle of the night. Susanne's suspicion was that it had more to do with the discomfort from the headaches he was experiencing and also the pain from the surgical site itself. Susanne had to keep reminding herself that his sternum was broken to gain access to his chest cavity. A broken bone of any kind could not be a pleasant feeling.

Paxton calmed down everytime that Susanne would hold him. This made Susanne so happy that she had decided to stay in his hospital room with him. She was still amazed that some mothers could sleep right through their baby screaming their head off. Last night was the second time that Susanne had to page for a nurse to come and comfort Paxton's neighbor because his mother slept right through his cries. It was all so very sad.

Paxton last went to bed around 2:45am. Susanne was hoping that both her and Paxton would be able to catch some sleep before they had to relocate for his tests this morning. Susanne had set her alarm for 7:00am so that she could ensure that she would be ready to go with Paxton for his procedures. She always had to add in a sufficient amount of time for pumping. This always took anywhere from twenty to thrity minutes from the beginning to the end. Overall, Susanne still felt that it was all worth it so that Paxton could receive the best possible nutrition available. She had been reminded of this since the first day they got to the hospital. Most of the doctors and nurses commented on how awesome it was that Susanne was still pumping and how it would pay off for Paxton in the long run. They all gave her kudos for keeping up with it since Paxton didn't take anything by mouth and he was still being feed strictly fortified breast milk as an eight month old. This made her even more motivated to continue on.

Almost exactly at 8:00am on the nose, the nurse came in to transport Paxton to a different floor. Surprisingly, Susanne was ready to go. She had to sign a couple of consent forms for the anesthesia and then they were on their way. Paxton was fit to be tied because he was woken up out of the deep sleep that he had tried so hard to get. He had his gagging and retching routine, which scared everyone, but Susanne. Once they were in the room where he would be anesthetized, Susanne worked hard to comfort him and finally got him to settle. Shortly thereafter, Paxton was given sedation to take the edge off before he would be put under. He always looked so peaceful after they gave him those drugs.

Susanne sat in the waiting room for about four hours. Unfortunately, this time she was alone. The waiting was always the hardest part. Once Paxton was back in the recovery room, they called Susanne to come back to be with the little guy. She was able to hold him and comfort him as he was waking up. She rocked him in the rocking chair for almost an hour before the anesthesiologist allowed him to be transported back upstairs to his hospital room. He was quite happy once he woke up completely. He was talking a lot and Susanne was even able to get him to laugh some.

When they got back to his room, Susanne changed his diaper and put him to bed. He took a long, peaceful nap for at least a couple of hours. After he opened his eyes, Susanne spent some time playing with Paxton. She sang to him, played peek-a-boo, gave him a baby massage, and made him giggle a lot. Once he started showing signs that he was getting tired again, she read him a couple of books. She was able to halfway lay in the bed with him. He loved for his mommy to be so close by.

He had a pretty low key afternoon. Susanne was able to get him back on somewhat of a schedule. The nurse even transitioned him over to his normal bolus feedings, which was another step in the right direction. Paxton was recovering like a rockstar. What a superman he was!