Broken Toe....Oh NO!

Paxton's birthday had been special. Scott and Susanne helped celebrate that monumental day with the big guy after they both got home from work last night. Unfortunately, Paxton couldn't wait up for Gigi and Poppy who were still at work until late that evening. Gigi and Poppy had gotten him a birthday cake with a number 1 candle on it to show their enthusiasm for Paxton turning a year old. Parker and Cole had helped Aunt Leah and Uncle Wally make Paxton some wonderful cupcakes. Susanne and Scott allowed Paxton to play around in both. They were excited to see what kind of mess he would make. They placed a little bit off icing on his lips to see if he would like it. He tasted a tiny amount with his tongue. He didn't seem as appalled by the idea as they had originally predicted. He was rather pleased with the offer.

After the celebration, Paxton watched some television with his mommy and daddy. He was always so mesmerized with the colors and movement on the screen. He almost seemed like he was in a trance whenever he was in front of the tube. He even laughed a lot while hanging out with them. Susanne could say or do anything and get that response. It was the sweetest sound in the world. It brought joy to their hearts and reminded them how lucky they were that he was still going strong.

After Paxton was in bed, Susanne got settled into her nighttime routine. She was finding that this was her time to use for herself. She loved to use this opportunity to sort through things that needed to be completed the following day. Also, she would take this time to work on blog entries, watch television, check facebook, check e-mail, or pump. She always found that it was difficult for her to actually go to bed. She was already such a night owl, but on top of that she had trained herself not to go to bed before Paxton's last feeding was completed, which was usually after 1:00am. Even though she enjoyed it in the moment, it made the next morning much more challenging.

Right before she crawled into bed, she went to the bathroom one last time. She didn't think to turn on the hall light to help light her way. She had grown up in this house, so this was a well-beaten path. Unfortunately, Poppy had placed Paxton's bouncer right outside of the door of the room that Susanne was staying in. She did not see the obstruction in her way until it was too late. Her fourth toe got caught on the metal bar and it bent in a way it was not supposed to. She immediately screamed out for help and Scott came to her rescue. It was very painful, but they thought maybe it was just jammed. It wasn't until this morning when Susanne realized it was actually broken. Rats.

Paxton slept well until around 7:30am. She thought she would get lucky enough that he would sleep until 9:00am when she was ready to pack him up in the car for the ride back to Virginia. Instead, she had to hobble around on one foot back and forth to his room to try to comfort him as he went through his morning ritual of gagging, coughing, and vomiting. He sounded like he had a lot that had built up over the course of the evening. She had to use the bulb syringe to clear his nasal passages and throat multiple times. He was quite upset for a while afterwards until he finally exhausted himself out. Once he finally calmed down, he closed his eyes for a mid-morning nap. Susanne was behind schedule at this point. She decided to go ahead and set him up on his next feeding while she finished packing the car. For some reason, his enteral pump was not cooperating. It kept beeping, saying that there was no food, but Susanne clearly knew there was food. She had just filled his enteral bag with 4oz of formula...thank you very much. She checked for kinks in the tube, air in the tube, or something clogging the tube, but none of that seemed to be the problem. She made sure that the tube was loaded in the pump correctly, that the door to the pump was closed, and that his extension set attached to his G-tube was unkinked. Everything checked out okay. She decided to prime the line to see if she could get the formula to flow through easily and it did. She connected Paxton back up to his feeding and it appeared to be running smoothly. She wasn't even completely back in her room when it beeped again. She went through this same routine at least four more times. Finally, it started working properly even though she had no idea what she had done to change the outcome this time.

A few hours later, Susanne was finally ready to leave. She was able to finish up the final load of laundry and pack the last items in the car. The very last thing that she always did was fill Paxton's cooler with ice, line the back of his carseat with ice packs, and prep his continuous enteral feeding for the length of the trip. She headed him up and moved him out and just like that, they were on the road.

Not even an hour into the drive, Susanne became sleepy. This was becoming problematic because she couldn't find a time of day that worked well for her. The trip was like a lullaby of sorts that immediately put her into a trance. She tried everything. She was singing loudly to the radio. She switched genres of music for variety. She even tried dancing. When that didn't work, she turned on Harry Potter. This made the situation worse. The droning sound of the narrator's voice made her eyelids even heavier. She rolled down the window for some fresh air, but that too lost it's power. The last resort was to phone a friend. This not only kept her mind off of the monotonous drive, but she got to catch up with her peeps.

When Susanne arrived into town, she decided she should run a few errands before heading to the house. She knew it would be near impossible to try to find the time to finish up the last minute items before Paxton's big birthday bash on Saturday. The three other times she had planned on getting some of these things done were interrupted by one thing or another. It was not easy to find someone to watch Paxton and it was even harder to try to take him with her. Trying to time things appropriately was a challenge. She would inevitably have to take everything required for any feedings he would be due for along with the appropriate medications. This required a means to keep everything cold until she needed it and a means to warm up the formula when he was ready for it. All in all, it was too much to handle when needing to go to numerous stores.

Susanne managed to make it to only two stores. She definitely attracted a lot of attention with her funny gait and her infant being connected to a tube that lead to a bookbag on her back. Susanne tired easily because she had to redistribute her weight so much with her injured toe on one side and a heavy baby on the other.

She couldn't wait to finally get home. Paxton couldn't either. He was well overdue for a diaper change and nap. Susanne took care of him first like she always had when she arrived. She found it challenging to unpack the car and tote everything upstairs on one functioning leg. She finished up the rest of her returning-home-ritual which always ended with a meal. Figaro and Chloe were so excited to have their mommy home. They had followed her around until she got settled into bed. They planted themselves in their usual positions and snuggled with her the rest of the night.