…or something similar.

Tiptoe slept not at all. She woke up soon after her surgery gagging from the tube going down her throat and pulling at the tube in her nose. She was doing well enough that they pulled both out at about 1am, and ever after, it was a battle to keep her calm.

Battling to keep someone calm. Yes, just as futile as it sounds.

Her big problem was that she was so thirsty. The first words out of her mouth were, “I want my mommy.” Closely followed by, “I want my bottle.” (M says that her first words were “I want my bottle,” but I was the one closest to her, and I’m sticking to my story. 🙂 )

They had to wait six hours from the time that they pulled out the nose tube before she could have something to drink. That’s a long time in baby hours. And in tired daddy hours. She was very, very cranky. At one point, she got frustrated with me, and told the nurse she was nice, but that I wasn’t. 🙂 (But she wouldn’t let the nurse tape any of her tubes; that was apparently a job for big, bad, Dad… I am vindicated.)

I was finally able to feed her ice chips four and a half hours after they pulled her nasal/mouth tubes. Oh, she was so happy! And cute. There’s nothing like watching a cranky baby chew ice chips to warm your heart. Trust me on this: cute, cute, cute! At six thirty or so, we graduated to drinking apple juice and water out of a straw, and she finally took a 40 minute nap. She woke up crankier; I think the pain medication had finally worn off enough she became cognizant of all the abuse her body had suffered. She drank lots of water, which made her feel better.

She’s sleeping now, and apparently has been for much of the morning/afternoon. (Figures.) She had a bit of arrhythmia that they thought could be solved by hooking her up to an external pacemaker, but no luck. It’s nothing serious, I’m told. She is also off several of her medications, and we’re looking at being transferred out of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit tomorrow. She is displacing LOTS of liquid out of her chest tubes, which we expected; that looks to be the determining factor that will keep us here for a while.

All things considered, she’s doing extremely well. Aside from being exhausted, so are we.

–Scott