We Passed. . . With No Panic Button!

On Thursday morning, Gerson and I arrived at the hospital for our 24 hours of learning to care for our son. We were escorted to a room off the NICU that had a bathroom, hide-a-bed, Jayden's crib, TV, and small refrigerator.
During the day we had a steady stream of visitors --- people to train us on Jayden's machines, nurses dropping by to say goodbye to us, social workers, etc. It was a very busy day!! In the midst of all the visitors, we were still responsible of taking care of Jayden --- changing his diapers, feeding him, and of course, loving on him!
We were trained first on how to use the monitor. Jayden will need to be on a heart/apnea monitor 24/7 until the doctor decides he's out of the woods with his trachea. We are very encouraged that he has not had a blue episode for at least a month and a half. We don't expect problems, but it's always better to be prepared! We were also trained in infant CPR, although we hope to never have to use it!

Next we were trained on how to use his feeding pump. During the day we will feed him every 3 hours by bottle. If he is unable to take the full amount by bottle, we will put the rest into his "burp" tube to drain into his G-tube. At night, however, he will get continuous feeding for 8 hours.  We had to learn how to hook up and set the pump. Our brains were spinning after all we had to learn!

We were also taught how to give Jayden his medicines through his G-tube and had time to practice doing just that in the 24 hour period we spent in the hospital. It was great hands-on training!
We also had to do the car seat test with Jayden. Before leaving the hospital, there is a checklist that must be completed. By Thursday, Jayden was most of the way through the checklist, but he still needed his car seat test. He had to sit in the car seat for the same amount of time he would need to sit in it on the ride to our house. During that time, he couldn't have problems breathing or problems with his heart rate. He passed with no problem! Jayden also had a hearing test. He passed that as well!

The night was much quieter, believe it or not! He really slept well, hooked up to his feeding pump. Gerson and I struggled to sleep because we were conscious of every noise he made. I went to bed at 11:00, changed his diaper and gave him medicine at 2:00, and then woke up when the feeding pump ran out of milk at 5:30. Guess I can't complain too much! 

On Friday, the doctor gave us the good news: Jayden had gained weight and we had passed our parent overnight, so we could TAKE HIM HOME that day!!!!!  There is no way to describe our joy . . . . God has indeed heard and answered our prayers. PRAISE THE LORD!