Frequently Answered Questions, post natal edition, Vol. 1
It's time for another round of frequently answered questions:
What is Teddy's size? What was his APGAR score?
Teddy weighed about 5 pounds, 10 ounces when he was born. He was about 17 and 3/4 inches long. His APGAR scores were 8 at the one minute mark, and 9 at the 5 minute mark. Those scores are actually pretty good, especially for a baby born with a congenital heart defect, so that's awesome.
How's Teddy now?
Teddy is doing pretty well. He's had visits from Grandparents, and from his uncle Jason, and tomorrow he gets to see Amy again, because she's getting sprung on a 4 hour day pass. So she'll get to come over and hold him and check him out.
How's Amy doing?
Amy is recovering pretty well. She was up and around, walking today. She's a little bummed that she's in one hospital and Ted's in another, but that's the way it sort of has to be for now.
How is Aaron doing?
I'm alright for the most part. I always feel like I need to be in at least 2 places at once, and if I'm at home for a moment, then it's three. So I can't wait until Amy gets out of the hospital, because then I won't have this constant feeling that I ought to be at Riverside when I'm at Children's, or Children's when I'm at Riverside.
Have you met the surgeons?
Not yet. The rounds at Children's happen between 8:30 and 10:30, and this morning, I chose to go to Riverside first to see Amy and to bring milk from her to Teddy, so I missed them. My general theory regarding the surgeons and the necessity of my meeting them is this: I could no more judge their medical skill than they could judge my skill at computer programming, and frankly, that's all I care about. If he rubs me the wrong way, but does a fantastic job fixing Ted's heart, then he can be a jerk.
Well, then, what do you know about the surgery?
Here's what I know. They're doing a surgical presentation on Wednesday, where all the medical types here will check him out, discuss his case, and generally make a plan of attack regarding his condition. I don't know what time on Wednesday that's happening. I don't know when, after the presentation, they will do the surgery. That's the limit of my knowledge at the moment. When I know more, I will share it.
Well, have you gotten to interact with him?
Sure. If you come by, you can, after you use the antibacterial gel on your hands, touch him, rub his little cheek, let him grab your finger in his tiny hands, or generally play with him. You can't easily pick him up. If you really want to, we can talk to a nurse, and you can hold him for a while, but it's a tricky procedure in that there's all sorts of wires and tubes to maneuver to let you hold him. It's pretty much worth it though.
Are you sleeping at home? At Riverside? At Children's?
For the time being, I plan to sleep at home as much as I can. It's about 10-15 minutes from home to either Children's or Riverside, so if I am needed at either place, I can get their quickly. Plus, I'm unlikely to sleep very well at either of those places, especially at Children's. Every time I hear an announcement here, I have to stop, and check my badge to see what room I'm in before I have a minor panic attack, and every time one of the machines hooked up to Teddy starts to make noise, I kind of freak out a little too.
Finally, while Jason's been a great help in feeding the cats when I can't make it over there, I do still have some responsibilities to take care of there, and that's the easiest way to do it. So, I'm often there at night, and at one or the other hospital during the day. Of course, I'm sending this from Children's at 9:30 at night, so my definition of night may be slightly different than yours.
Do you need anything?
The ability to be in 2 places at once. Barring that, a specially designated lane on 315, 70 and Livingston Ave. for me, and me alone, to drive between the two locations would be nice. Yeah. Someone get on that.
Late Edit: What's with the Twitter feed here?
I have a Twitter account that I mostly use to aggregate cool things from other people. However, despite the fact that it's generally a bad idea to post where you are on social media, I'm going to ignore that for the moment to use that feed to post whether I'm at Riverside, home, or Children's, so that if people want to see Teddy, they can follow me and get some sense of where I might be at the moment.
What is Teddy's size? What was his APGAR score?
Teddy weighed about 5 pounds, 10 ounces when he was born. He was about 17 and 3/4 inches long. His APGAR scores were 8 at the one minute mark, and 9 at the 5 minute mark. Those scores are actually pretty good, especially for a baby born with a congenital heart defect, so that's awesome.
How's Teddy now?
Teddy is doing pretty well. He's had visits from Grandparents, and from his uncle Jason, and tomorrow he gets to see Amy again, because she's getting sprung on a 4 hour day pass. So she'll get to come over and hold him and check him out.
How's Amy doing?
Amy is recovering pretty well. She was up and around, walking today. She's a little bummed that she's in one hospital and Ted's in another, but that's the way it sort of has to be for now.
How is Aaron doing?
I'm alright for the most part. I always feel like I need to be in at least 2 places at once, and if I'm at home for a moment, then it's three. So I can't wait until Amy gets out of the hospital, because then I won't have this constant feeling that I ought to be at Riverside when I'm at Children's, or Children's when I'm at Riverside.
Have you met the surgeons?
Not yet. The rounds at Children's happen between 8:30 and 10:30, and this morning, I chose to go to Riverside first to see Amy and to bring milk from her to Teddy, so I missed them. My general theory regarding the surgeons and the necessity of my meeting them is this: I could no more judge their medical skill than they could judge my skill at computer programming, and frankly, that's all I care about. If he rubs me the wrong way, but does a fantastic job fixing Ted's heart, then he can be a jerk.
Well, then, what do you know about the surgery?
Here's what I know. They're doing a surgical presentation on Wednesday, where all the medical types here will check him out, discuss his case, and generally make a plan of attack regarding his condition. I don't know what time on Wednesday that's happening. I don't know when, after the presentation, they will do the surgery. That's the limit of my knowledge at the moment. When I know more, I will share it.
Well, have you gotten to interact with him?
Sure. If you come by, you can, after you use the antibacterial gel on your hands, touch him, rub his little cheek, let him grab your finger in his tiny hands, or generally play with him. You can't easily pick him up. If you really want to, we can talk to a nurse, and you can hold him for a while, but it's a tricky procedure in that there's all sorts of wires and tubes to maneuver to let you hold him. It's pretty much worth it though.
Are you sleeping at home? At Riverside? At Children's?
For the time being, I plan to sleep at home as much as I can. It's about 10-15 minutes from home to either Children's or Riverside, so if I am needed at either place, I can get their quickly. Plus, I'm unlikely to sleep very well at either of those places, especially at Children's. Every time I hear an announcement here, I have to stop, and check my badge to see what room I'm in before I have a minor panic attack, and every time one of the machines hooked up to Teddy starts to make noise, I kind of freak out a little too.
Finally, while Jason's been a great help in feeding the cats when I can't make it over there, I do still have some responsibilities to take care of there, and that's the easiest way to do it. So, I'm often there at night, and at one or the other hospital during the day. Of course, I'm sending this from Children's at 9:30 at night, so my definition of night may be slightly different than yours.
Do you need anything?
The ability to be in 2 places at once. Barring that, a specially designated lane on 315, 70 and Livingston Ave. for me, and me alone, to drive between the two locations would be nice. Yeah. Someone get on that.
Late Edit: What's with the Twitter feed here?
I have a Twitter account that I mostly use to aggregate cool things from other people. However, despite the fact that it's generally a bad idea to post where you are on social media, I'm going to ignore that for the moment to use that feed to post whether I'm at Riverside, home, or Children's, so that if people want to see Teddy, they can follow me and get some sense of where I might be at the moment.
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