Safe In Mommy's Arms Again

Moppy and Susanne headed over to see Paxton early in the morning so that they could be present for the wire study that he was having done. Before the doctors would even consider taking out Paxton's pacing wires, they wanted to make sure that his heart could handle functioning under normal conditions without them. The doctor came in and used the external pacemaker to increase Paxton's heart rate. At first it was to a level that it would usually be at without any medications on board. Then, he increased the heart rate to a level that one might see if Paxton was under stress. Thankfully, his heart handled the increased rate and the doctor was unable to induce any abnormal rhythms. This gave them enough evidence that Paxton was stable enough to move to the intermediate care unit. This was exciting news. All of the doctors, especially Paxton's primary cardiologist and his surgeon, were beyond shocked with how well he was recovering. They could tell that he was a strong boy with a killer instinct to fight.

Susanne was dying to hold Paxton. She had given up her opportunity to hold him yesterday so that everyone that was heading home could get a chance to snuggle with him before they left. It took everything in her to wait as long as she had. Finally, her time came. The nurse set her up in a rocking chair and handed him over. She loved talking to him, holding his hand, rocking him to sleep, but most of all kissing his sweet face. There was nothing more perfect in the world than holding her baby boy in her arms.

Later in the day, Moppy got to hold Paxton as well. She sang him all of his favorite lullabies. He would usually fall right asleep in her arms, but he just couldn't get comfortable. She ended up putting him back in his bed to see if she could get him to settle some.

The nurse informed Susanne that the milk supply that she had brought with her from home was running low. Paxton had been recently started on continuous feedings and the milk was going like hot cakes. Susanne knew that she would have to increase the frequency of how often she was pumping to try to keep up. Supply and demand baby!

All day, Moppy and Susanne kept missing the cut off for the cafeteria. They ended up eating dinner at Au Bon Pain, which was the Boston version of Panera Bread. They are really everywhere across the United States, but it just seemed to be overrepresented in this area. They decided to build their own salad, which was surprisingly delightful.

After dinner, they wanted to spend a little more time with Paxton before they headed back to the Devon Nicole House to do some laundry. Susanne got to hold him one last time before he went down for the night. It was such a relief that Paxton had the same handful of nurses for the most part throughout his time in the cardiac ICU. This definitely made it a lot better for everyone. It was nice that Susanne was starting to get to know them personally and gaining their trust. The nurses were also able to give him better quality of care because they were already well informed about his medical history and the tentative plan of action.