Looking up

We got a call from The Ronald McDonald House yesterday, we had been staying at a hotel while we were on their waiting list. They had a room for us so we left the hospital to take care of that. Wow! This house is a huge upgrade in accomodations over the hotel (which was very nice) They have so much room here, play rooms, a huge yard with a playground and a kitchen with4 stoves, dishwashers and refrigerators. We were able to get Jon and Annie back, staying here will be much easier on the kids and the kitchen means we can have meals together again. That is much better. We had both been missing the kids and I could tell from their greeting that they missed us too. They were only able to see their brother for a short time after he was born because the ambulance team showed up right away to transport him here. We took them right in to his room and let them say hello. Annie brushed his hair; we still have to work on the concept of gentle with her. The morphine was his friend. It's good to have the family together again. We found out when we checked in that someone paid for our stay in advance. Thank you to whomever it was, staying here makes doing all this so much more tolerable.
The plastic surgeon stopped by as well, we came down here and had a consult with him back in the good ol’ days when we thought the cosmetic issues were our biggest concern. He has the best bedside manner I have seen in a doctor, very personable and easy to talk to. He looked down at Kevin for a moment and looked at Tina and said “You know you’re going to be here a while.” He also said that he has seen lots of kids worse off than Kevin that came through just fine, kids have a way of surprising us and the best thing to do is wait and let them show us what they can do. He said he’s seen lots of kids that got off to a worse start than Kevin who came out of it just fine. Yesterday ended up being a good day.
8:45- We all got to the hospital, Kevin has been moving around more, maybe because they cut back on his morphine, I'm not sure but we are glad to see more activity. He was blowing spit bubbles around his breathing tube. Tina is washing the ultrasound goop off his chest from his heart doppler yesterday like a mother. (his heart looks fine) I only stayed in his room for a short visit because Annie got restless and wanted to come back out to the waiting room to play with some toys. That is the tradeoff for having the family together, young kids have a lower boredom threshold. I'm just glad to have them all here with me. I think we are going to go back to the house more often to let the kids unwind, we are only 5-10 minutes from the hospital so it won't be bad. I think it takes longer to walk from the parking garage to the NICU than the drive from the house to hospital. Tina won't ride in a wheelchair anymore, I guess I push like a maniac...
I will try to post more later, maybe more pictures too. I am having a hard time with the wireless network at Ronald McDonald, maybe because it's a secured network, I will troubleshoot it more when I have some time. In the meantime, I am able to write on Word, save it to a flash drive and use one of the many internet computers the hospital makes available. These are grest times we live in, the future is now! Thanks again to all the people who are checking in and leaving coments. Geoff and Janice, I hope your party goes well today.
12:30- Kevin's nurse just told me they took him off antibiotics, no sign of infection and they are working to wean him off the respirator. He is down to 28% oxygen and is breathing himself most of the time. I think he will start making more noise if the tube comes out of his mouth. He gets so mad when Tina cleans him and makes a face like he's crying but no sound comes out. He also opened his eyes a little bit. baby steps.