home

Well, we've been home from the hospital since Thursday afternoon. Jonas showed enough improvement for the Dr. to release him. He is still having a little trouble breathing when he is playing...he breathes harder, more rapidly like he is out of breath, but he definitely feels better.
I have a few thoughts/observations about this whole experience...

1. We have amazing friends and family. Since we are so far away from our biological families, we rely on our friends to be family to us. They brought us meals, came to visit, texted and called, prayed, brought Jonas gifts, etc. We have experienced community at it's best.

2. Hospital "beds" make you VERY thankful for your own bed (that maybe you once complained about). The first night, Jonas wouldn't sleep in the crib, so we took turns holding him all night - that meant sleeping in a rocking chair recliner. The second night, we slept head to toe on the twin couch/bed.

3. If you don't have friends that bring you food, eating while in the hospital can be very expensive. I think it should be "on the house" since you eventually get a humongous bill for your stay.

4. We are so thankful for our health and the fact that Jonas is healthy...that he isn't fighting something more serious. Lots of the rooms in the Children's Hospital kept the doors open. When I would walk around just to get my blood flowing, I would see the little kids in the rooms and wonder why they were there. There was a parent who seemed like she had been there a while that we would see in the hall.

5. Our bodies can surprisingly function are very little sleep. We had hardly slept on Sunday night because Jonas was up a lot of the night. Then, Monday night he was up a lot and we finally left for the ER at about 4 am on Tuesday. We didn't go to "sleep" until probably about midnight that night. You just roll with the punches. We hardly expected to be admitted to the hospital when we walked into the ER.

6. I don't envy pediatric doctors and nurses. When they had to put in an IV into Jonas while in the ER, they tried at least 5 times in his arms but his veins kept collapsing. Even though we were really frustrated (and really sad that Jonas was so frantic), we could tell the nurse was really sad as well. Finally, they were able to put the IV into a vein in his scalp. This was by far the worst part. I don't know if it is as hard to stick an adult 4 or 5 times as it is to stick an 8 month old that many times. Our nurses were great and really cared for Jonas so well.

7. Jonas is so brave and was really good through this whole thing. He was confined to his bed, an exesaucer, and the recliner next to his bed because of the stuff he was hooked up to...IV drip, pulse/ox probe, and oxygen. He is normally crawling all of the place. He did really good to just play in the crib or sit our our lap and play. He fussed a little but not uncontrollably. We have a pretty good kid.

Here are some pictures of "discharge day"