Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Max is Home!

Mr. Max was finally released from the hospital yesterday after a 10 day stay due to catching a respiratory virus, bronchiolitis. Poor little guy needed extra o2 support, had a rough cough, and ran fever even spiking to 103.  He started to hit a plateau on getting well and was being a bit stubborn on letting the doctors decrease his o2. Therefore, they trusted him to come home to us and let us wean him throughout the coming weeks as he slowly improves.

Like I said in the previous post, this was an Iphone pic sort of week, so please look past the grain to see our love bug! On a positive note: with Max being in the hospital he was able to get special care and reevaluation from the doctors concerning his overall health. When you have a baby like Max who has several medical problems you quickly find out that each specialist doctor passes you off to the next one when there is something wrong. With having a hospitalist see him for several days, we were able to make a few changes (like adjusting his nutrition) that will help Maxers.
With the winter season upon us, Max will go back to using o2 24 hours a day and will start breathing treatments on a daily basis. He doesn't mind the treatments so much because he just thinks it is another toy to play with!
Max's somewhat of a schedule got completely out of whack during the hospital and even stayed up late partying until 1:00 am a few nights and then would sleep until noon! I'm sure the next couple of days will take some time getting him back in his routine.
We seriously love our nurses and doctors at Covenant Children's Hospital! When Max began to feel a little bit better, he started getting bored just laying in bed. No worries though because our fabulous nurses came to the rescue to bring Max a bouncer...
 which he loved so much that he even jumped himself to sleep!
Which is so funny to me because he is so particular about only falling asleep in his bed, at least that was until he discovered jumping! To be completely honest, these last ten days have been extremely difficult. Daniel and I both felt like single parents just passing our kids off to each other for hours here or there. We only saw one another when switching the kids at our car and snuck in texting conversations when we could. Kason seriously missed his little buddy because he was only able to stop by twice and of course Zoe couldn't go to the hospital at all because she is too young...
 You can see Max was excited for Kason to drop by and was grabbing big brothers hands...gotta love it! I personally had a difficult time because this was my first time to leave Zoe longer than a couple hours...rather every night (no snuggles and tucking her in) and almost all day. She even had to go to the church nursery for the first time on Wednesday and Sunday...I didn't even get to take her for her first time! Of course we survived the day to day, but it wasn't enjoyable to be split from my hubby, my 4 month old, and my little man. Daniel and I strive to make the best of our situation with Max, but there are so many days that being a parent to a medically fragile and special needs kid is really hard...long hospital stays is just one on the list of many! 
What we are rejoicing about is knowing that Max is feeling better, we are all back home together, and he started to communicate with us a little bit over the past few days! Since Max doesn't speak, he cries to communicate with us when he needs something. Well, recently he has started reaching his hand out to be held when he wants touch...oh, how I love it! He even started turning my head if I looked away so that he could watch my lips when I'm holding him. At first I thought it was a fluke, but sure enough every time I was messing with his tubing or picking something up he would get his little left hand and push my face back towards his...precious!!! While this might be a long winter and most likely another hospital stay, The Clayton Crew will cherish our days home together as a family and continue to love on Max as he gets better!

2 comments:

  1. Natalie, I am sorry to hear that Max has been having a rough time and therefore you and Daniel as well! But am so glad he is doing better and able to be at home. You are Daniel are such amazing parents and an amazing team! Love ya'll!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. P.S. Happy 10th anniversary tomorrow!!!! Wowzers, can't believe it's been a DECADE! Still remember that beautiful day like it was last week! :)

    ReplyDelete