I was discharged from the hospital after 72 hours, but they allowed me to continue to stay in a room at no cost until Skittles was discharged. We had originally planned on another 5 days, so Gamer brought me down enough food for a week to store in the community parent fridge and then he and Taco left for Arizona at the end of week 1 in the NICU.
Gamer was nervous about leaving me alone (and without a car) with my mom out of town. Fortunately I had several siblings around who could come check on me and Burrito’s best friend, Blake’s dad agreed to a week-long sleepover. Both boys had stayed with Blake while I was in labor and Gamer stayed at the hospital and Burrito had countless sleepovers during the previous weeks. To be honest he has spent most of the summer at his friend’s house, Gamer started calling Blake’s dad Burrito's “Second Dad.” These are truly great neighbors who love my boy.
If you can imagine after nearly 2 full weeks with Blake, Burrito was ready for a break. I guess I should explain, Blake is actually 3 years younger than Burrito. He started out being Salsa’s best friend. He had a lot in common with Salsa and they were emotionally the same age. Blake kept coming over looking for Salsa after DCFS moved the boys. Last summer I forced Burrito into being nice to Blake and it slowly developed into a great friendship. But sometimes the age difference can be trying for Burrito and late Sunday night he called and asked if I could arrange for him to come see his brother at the hospital.
Drama Queen doesn’t work Mondays and we quickly made arrangements for her and Burrito to come visit that Monday. Drama Queen had plans to bring me lunch, but the nurses had been pushing for me to get out of the hospital (I hadn’t been outside in over a week) and get some fresh air. They encouraged me to try the bistro across the street and ice cream at Hatch’s next door for dessert.
Drama Queen agreed fresh air would be good for me. Skittles had gone back on the bilirubin lights that morning. We had spent Sunday snuggling all day long, so Skittles was very disappointed with having his “sun glasses” covering his eyes and not being held. He cried for so long when I wouldn’t pick him back up after our early morning feeding that I had to leave the room to shower and cry. I let Burrito have my hour of lunchtime snuggle time and Skittles quickly fell asleep in his brother’s arms. Once our time was up and he had to go back under the lights, we heading down for an adventure to the bistro and Hatch’s Chocolates.
When we arrived, we saw the bistro was closed on Mondays. We all agreed to enjoy dessert first and then head over for food at the hospital cafeteria. After sampling nearly every homemade flavor we picked our favorites. Burrito got a double scoop waffle cone with oreo and cherry chocolate chip. For the last 48 hours all I wanted was a banana so I eagerly ordered a banana split. Drama Queen indulged in the brownie sundae. If we had any idea how large, rich and decadent the sundae and banana split would be, we would have shared.
I topped Burrito's cone off with one of my piles of fresh whipped cream. He easily finished off his waffle cone. I enjoyed ½ of my banana split before offering the rest to Burrito. Drama Queen offered up a few bites of her dessert. Let me just say that a brownie made from scratch with homemade real chocolate instead of cocoa powder is a complete different experience. The brownie sundae was delicious, but so rich she could have shared with 4 people and still felt satisfied. Burrito polished off my banana spilt and waited like a lion stalking his prey for Drama Queen offer her brownie sundae.
Drama Queen rewarded him with the last quarter of her brownie. Burrito dug in and immediately the rich brownie was making him full. He asked if he could finish while walking back to the hospital. We returned to the hospital and eventually located the cafeteria, Burrito was uncomfortably full of ice cream but not enough to turn down a chance to order a corn dog and fries. Drama Queen and I ordered a French dip sub to share, but the cook was confused and prepared 2 sandwiches. We all tried to eat real food after our indulgent dessert, Drama Queen started worrying Burrito was going to throw up in mom’s Lexus on the drive home. Burrito insisted he was fine and snarfed dog the hotdog and fries.
It had been nearly 2 hours and they needed to get home to work on the painting project. Burrito had left his phone in my room to charge. We went up to get it while Drama Queen got the car out of the lot. The elevator ride up made Burrito queasy. Now I was worried about vomit in Mom’s car. His tummy hurt more and more with each passing step. We retrieved the phone and I detoured to the Labor and Delivery nurses station to ask for a barf bag, just in case. The nurses gave him a hard time for his rookie mistake of overindulgence at Hatch’s Chocolates. On the main floor Burrito decided to use the bathroom before the drive home. Drama Queen was waiting in the drop off zone and very relieved to see the barf bag. And there were no incidents on the way home.
1 comment:
That was a great read and diffidently should be a journal entry. I loved reading about your experiences in the NICU with your little Skittles. I think it is awesome that you were able to stay until the baby was discharged. I do think your Burrito has a strong stomach and amazed at all he did eat. Of course, that’s a boy for you. I like that your neighbors and siblings helped you out a lot. Many lessons of thankfulness are learned in moments like this one.
Blessings and hugs for this one!
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