Toddlers ain't built for hospital rooms

But I knew that going into this, and pulled out my stubborn side to deal with it. Wade has stayed here since Tuesday, when Tanner had to leave. Coincidentally, Tuesday was also the day we got moved onto the floor, into a shared room, so we were left with a little less space with which to handle his "bull in a china shop" tendencies. Of course, there's also slightly fewer fragile things on the floor for said tendencies to destroy, so I suppose there are some upsides. We've been keeping him distracted with frequent trips to the play room and playground downstairs, and occasional trips through town for the acquarium and the zoo...we may go to the children's museum tomorrow if I can work up enough gumption to do so. I think he'll be glad to go home this weekend with Mom, but in the meantime, I've loved not having to miss him all the time!

We're sharing our room with another mom named Heather that has the sweetest, tiny little newborn girl, fresh out of surgery and doing beautifully. It's been fun to have someone to talk to that doesn't have to have a medical dictionary on hand to be able to relate. We ended up going to dinner together last night when we realized that it was 7:30 and we weren't done talking! It's a world of difference from last trip, when we had eight different roommates over the course of a week, and didn't exchange a hundred words between them.

Brandt is getting his PICC line out today! It's becoming a little less than perfectly functional since it hasn't been in use for a couple days. It's no longer good for blood draws, which is usually a perk of this particular kind of line. So now, it's just an infection and clot risk, so since they don't anticipate him needing it again for milrinone or any other medication, they decided to take a chance on it. That means that he's just down to his leads and the pulse ox, which I may be able to take off periodically to go on walks and such. I also sense that with the PICC gone, bathtime is going to be on the immediate horizon, because there's only so much that wet wipes and "bed baths" can do to keep a child from being classified as malodorous.

We're getting closer and closer to discharge! Every little step gets me antsy to go further! It'll be nice to get him out from behind the hospital walls. The last time he was outside was more than three weeks ago, the day before surgery.

Also, it's been twenty two days since surgery. One kind of loses track of time around here, but that's a little mind blowing. That's longer than we were in the hospital the first time around! Our count, as of today, is five weeks of hospital time. I think it's about time for that to stop increasing!