Christmas Away from Home

But sleep was not to be :-( Brandt had a really rough night, waking up constantly, seeming to be in pain, wanting to be held. I felt so bad for him...knew he HAD to be exhausted. Even his pain meds weren't really helping. The nurses thought it was just because he's old enough to know he's not in his home environment, or that maybe he was teething, but he's generally still very happy even away from home. He did finally sleep 3 or 4 hours in the early morning, and seemed more comfortable as the day progressed.

The day being...Christmas Eve Day! Our older boys had done really well accepting that we had not had time to make plans for a big celebration away from home. They even seem to understand that others here have children more sick than their brother. We opportunity and blessing to let the boys use some of their Christmas money to pick out a gift for one of the very sick babies in PCICU and just include his mother in our Christmas Day plans. So imagine our overwhelming gratitude when we had strangers who had heard we were here come to carol the boys with gifts, stop by our room to pray for Brandt and bring gift cards, and then family and friends reduced me to tears by sending my Mom down with a beautiful little tree and carefully chosen gifts and goodies for us to have a Christmas away from home. Some of our church group also cleaned the house really thoroughly, which will be a huge relief--though somewhat embarrassing given the chaos of the last month--when we get home.

Dr. Bradley came to check Brandt's incision and wanted to leave the drain in...not a huge amount of fluid, but just as a precaution. The incision continues to heal well, which is great news. Since he's been so fussy, they will check his white BC again tomorrow morning just for an internal indication on what may or may not be going on. We don't expect a lot of variation on that, though, given the antibiotics he's on.

I've included a couple pictures of the cozy hospital room decorated with some of this generosity. The boys opened a couple gifts since they were so excited, and then I took my Mom up on her offer to stay with Brandt for the night so I could catch up on some sleep--Glenn had offered as well, but it was nice to be able to get some time with him and the boys together before they had to leave in a couple days. In addition, he and Seth were fighting some sinus drainage that I didn't want to turn into a full-blown cold. Looking forward to a joyful day tomorrow!!