We're Home!

So, we're home now.  Isaac is doing pretty well.  He did come home on .5 liters of oxygen, but we're hoping that we'll be able to wean him off that by Monday or Tuesday, but we'll just have to wait and see.  The hospital was packed -- one of my nurses told us she had NEVER seen more than 8 kids on the floor, and when she came in that morning there were 15.  Between RSV, bronchiolitis, croup and whooping cough, the place was packed.  Isaac has RSV and bronchiolitis, as well as an ear infection, but he has done remarkably well.  We managed to avoid getting an IV by pretty much nursing around the clock (but after holding him down during vacuum suctioning multiple times and a chest x-ray, there was no way I wanted to hold him down for an IV.)  And despite being a pretty sick little boy, he would usually perk up when people came in -- he was well known for his flirting antics with the nurses.  When one nurse in particular would come in, he'd sit up and spit.  Loudly spit, over and over again.  Then blow bubbles in said spit. He pretty much thought he was the most clever, charming baby in the whole wide world.
The last couple nights have been some of the more exhausting of my life. 
Isaac's been sick lately, but nothing too worrying.  I'd called his doctor's office on Thursday, just to let them know about his snotty nose and cough, and the fever he'd had the night before but was now gone.  They said to follow up if it got any worse.  Well, around 2AM, Isaac woke up screaming.  Like completely writhing and thrashing and screaming like I've never seen him before.  And coughing, so hard that he couldn't stop.  After about a half hour or so of him nursing then breaking away and screaming and coughing, I told Greg that I really was starting to think something was wrong.  I decided to take him to the ER.  We got there and the first thing they did was hook him up to check his oxygen, and my heart sunk when I was that it was only at 85.  Within an hour, and after a breathing treatment (that everyone thought was probably unnecessary, but since we have a family history of asthma, they did it anyway), a chest x-ray and some horrible vacuum suctioning of his nose, we were admitted to the hospital.  I've had three kids, and this is my first time we've had to be admitted like this.  In the early morning hours the doctors and nurses were so impressed with how well he was responding to the oxygen that they excitedly told me about their new protocol -- if a baby could stay above 87 consistently on .5 liters of oxygen for eight hours, they'd send them home on it.  Everyone was so confident that Isaac would be one of these babies that it wasn't until 7PM, after several disappointing dips in his oxygen levels, that the nurse finally took down a complete medical history and went through all the registration information with us -- she said, "We had all hoped you guys wouldn't have to be here over night!"
Then last night was somewhere between a comedy and my worst nightmare.  Isaac seemed to think we should spend the whole night with me sitting in the chair and holding him and nursing him.  I wanted to lay down at some point (I'm guessing I've had about 11 hours of sleep in the past three days), so I dared to lay him down in his crib.  So he screamed.  And screamed.  And started to doze off, then kicked off his pulse ox monitor on his foot.  So the nurse came in and had to get it back on.  Then he was wide awake.  And he started screaming again.  This is when I called Greg sobbing.  He, of course, said he'd come right away and I could come home and sleep for a few hours.  But, I knew I'd never be able to fall asleep worrying about him, so I told Greg to get one good night of uninterrupted sleep 'cause when I finally got home, I was sleeping as much as I wanted to while he was in charge of everything else.
Anyway, last night, after finally getting Isaac to sleep, I was able to drift off.  And less than 45 minutes later, the alarms started up.  The alarm would sound anytime Isaac's pulse ox would go below 87.  I felt like for awhile there it was just this roller coaster of falling asleep, alarm, watching the numbers go 87 - 86 - 85 - 86 - 87 -88 (alarm stops) - 88 - 88 - 88 - I start to drift off again - 87 (alarm) - 86 - 85.   Over and over again.  Finally, he was holding steady in the low 90s and I started to really fall asleep again.  Then I'd suddenly wake up to the distant sounds of shrieking babies.  Not mine, who was soundly sleeping about 12 feet from me, but all the other babies in our hallway.  My Mommy nerves would frazzle each time I heard a screaming baby.  I finally did get an hour or two chunk of sleep with no alarms and no (noticeably) screaming babies, then Isaac woke up around 2.  And thought he needed my undivided attention 'til about 4AM.  Then, for good measure, he'd kick off various wires and we'd have to have the nurses come back in.  They rehooked up his pulse ox monitor four times in one half hour period at one point.  When I finally got him to sleep again, around four o'clock, it was by laying him in the crib and going and hiding in the bathroom so he couldn't see me until he finally fell asleep.  I did get to sleep until about 6AM, which was a heavenly almost 2 hour block of sleep, then he was up for the day.  He did nap in Daddy's arms when Greg came in the morning, and I laid down and got about another 45 minutes of sleep before Isaac woke up wanting to eat (again).
But, we'd accomplished what we'd needed to -- Isaac went about 11 hours with consistently improving oxygen levels, so we were given a tank of oxygen and told we could go home.  Then about three and a half hours later they actually got us all the way checked out :-)  We got home around 11AM, and I've never been so happy to see my own bed.  :-)
So now we're just playing the waiting game.  We can bring Isaac back to the hospital at any time to get suctioned if he's too congested, and we go back Monday to get his oxygen checked and talk to his pediatrician about weaning him off of it.  But for now, I'm hoping we all just get a lot of rest and get to take it easy.  Well, and do the last five days worth of laundry that's piled up.  :-) 

In the ER the first night -- I have more pictures of him in the hospital gown and all, but this was the only one on my phone, and I'm not going to deal with uploading my camera pictures until I've gotten a bit more sleep in :-)