DEAR time

A little light reading prior to discharge yesterday.

Good morning!

Woody is a little cranky but generally himself today. All the lost posts and reposts from the past two days magically hit last night, so it will be until Monday before I can get the site cleaned up. Gee thanks, flickr. ~I'm sure glad I was forced into the Yahoo fold to improve my mobile performance.~

A hungry hungry hippo

He's very awake and very hungry.

Freedom!

About an hour and a half ago, Woody was discharged from the hospital. They kept him overnight because of his impressive medical history and because his oxygen saturation was a bit marginal last night (in the 88-92 range). It was probably just because of some lingering effects of the anesthesia, because this morning he was back in the high 90s and was very, very active.

So he got one more quick look by doctor Way Hot, and then he was discharged with nothing but some tylenol for pain as needed. He already seems pretty much like normal, except for some crankiness related to some constipation (hm, I think I'm being redundant). He was even rolling from his back to his stomach in his hospital bed, and that was pretty rare before the surgery. So it looks like the whole episode has been successfully closed. He's going down to the farm today to recuperate, and I'm going to work. I'll try to post later some of the pictures that flickr choked on yesterday.

Feeling frisky

No problems

i've had quite a bit of trouble with my flickr loader this afternoon.

I am testing a workaround. in the meantime, rest well, Woody fans. he is doing great.

Success!

That little symbol means he is done. And the surgeon says everything went great. We're now waiting for him to get taken into recovery so we can see him.

The surgical scoreboard

They keep track of the status of the patients by this tote board. Woody is currently just getting started.

At the dojo

His hospital PJs look like a kung fu costume to me.

Admitting

I am always put in mind of the scene in Goonies where Chunk is captured by the Fratellis and tells them *everything*.

Woody's new chair

I'm posting this primarily to point out how perfectly his shirt matches it.

Therapy visit

Woody is playing with J., the therapist that works with him on a (mostly) weekly basis.

One more day

We're in the last day before Woody's surgery now. Tomorrow morning at nine he's going under the knife to repair his inguinal hernia, which is his last (we hope) big trauma directly relating to his premature birth. He was about six weeks old when it started appearing; nurse J* mentioned it as an offhand remark during one of the last days when we were in Room 13 at the NICU (we moved to the better room in July, so I know it was before then). By the time he was done with the hospital his hernia had grown to the size referred to by the technical term "bodacious," but we were told that we should wait until after flu and RSV season to bring him back to get it fixed. Well, we made it through the winter-- our freakishly obsessive sanitization and hermitization techniques worked, and he didn't get sick at all.

I'm not concerned with the actual surgery. It's the single most common surgical procedure for young children, especially boys, and our doctor** has performed something like a billion of them. The problem for me is in the idea that Woody will be waiting before the surgery and won't see me or Mag and will get scared, or will otherwise be in pain and without us to comfort him, and it just makes me a little bit crazy, if not verklempt. But he should be in and out of the OR in an hour, and the hospital in a day or less, so the trauma should be short.

By the way, we've been having a lot of doctor and other appointments with him recently. He had his six month followup for the NICU last Friday, and he got several gold stars. They measured him on his development for weight and length and neurological issues, and he is at or above his adjusted age in everything. He's even started to show up on the un-adjusted growth charts comparing him to other eleven month old "normal" babies, although he's of course on the low end of those. But he's well ahead of the game for fine motor control, and he's exceeding all expectations for his health and intelligence, so we couldn't be happier. One of the most common things we hear from doctors and nurses is that he's at the top of the curve for preemies, and some of the doctors go well beyond that. I've heard from at least three health professionals that he is the very best 23-weeker they've ever worked with, and quite literally all of them say that they'd never even know he was a preemie if they didn't already know it. We are proud as punch.

I will do some short updates from the hospital throughout the day tomorrow.

*Nurse J just had her first kid, an adorable little girl, in March. She figured out she was pregnant just days after one of the NPs at the Unnamed Hospital performed some sort of odd pagan ritual and determined that she would be childless. Take that, pagan rituals!

**The surgeon has been described as "the most attractive man I've ever seen in person" by Maggie. When she told this to Nurse S, the response was "oh yes, Dr. Way Hot." What is this, Grey's Anatomy?

Basket perspective

Woody is outgrowing the basket that Sixy got for him. Note the bent knees. Also, he's figuring out the sippy cup (the French call it ~'la tasse sippé'~). We're now in the final countdown to his (we hope) last big preemie related medical trauma-- his hernia surgery. I will be posting a lot this week to keep everyone up to speed.

Woody's new trick

He does a good job holding the position, too.

Woody is tired

After the excitement at church, Woody was pooped.

Another Easter pic

...and his standing is getting much more stable.

Woody's Easter outfit

Maggie and Woody and I had our first public outing today, to the early Easter service. This is what he wore.

A Good Friday

I was walking out the door this morning and saw this ridiculous arrangement of cute family members. Good Friday indeed.

Mugging for the camera

Me and Woody pause a feeding last weekend to pose for the camera.