The Kirk's - Boys-R-Us!

The Next Day
Minus 1 Baby & A Lot Of Sleep!!

Our Empty Room
So once the transport team got all the info they needed and all the forms signed, they let us say one last good bye and out they went with our sweet little Pierce. I cried because I was still in shock, and I was terrified about what they could possibly find or what they couldn't fix & more than anything because I was stuck in this hospital and my baby was on the way to a strange place without me or his daddy (he could have gone but he would have had no where to sleep). My baby may have the holes in his heart but mine was broken!

Once Dave and I got settled back down we turned out the light and fell asleep around 1:00am. It felt like 5 minutes later but it was now after 3:00am and the loud room phone rang, Dave & I both about jumped out of our skin from the confusion and shock - he handed me the phone and I spoke with the on-call neonatologist from down at Northside. Between the percocet, and exhaustion I can't really remember what he was saying, but I remember I answered with "OK" a lot and at the end of the conversation I felt better about the condition of Pierce although it didn't sound like they were on their way back up to my hospital. But I was relieved to know that they did not think the masses in his lungs were really scary, but rather diaphragm hernias, and they would like to have another cardiologist look at his heart in the morning because they believed that was the more pressing issue. This was the beginning of the back and forth with Pierce's diagnosis. It really seemed like we would talk to one doctor and they would say "oh no - that issue is really benign and the more important issue is this" then the very next doc we would speak to would negate that and between the exhaustion and stress it was just enough information to keep us completely confused.

At 7:30 I was woken up by a nurse wanting vitals and to draw blood - nothing like a visit from a phlebotomist first thing in the morning! So she took a vial of blood and let me know that some how, when Pierce was transferred out of the hospital (and therefor the hospital's computer system, I was also removed) so that made for a fun day. On top of the fact that I was 'just some surgery patient 'rooming in' on the maternity ward floor with no baby' now I also had no drugs or food coming because I was out of the system. Sweet!

We decided that Dave should head home, spend some time with Kaiden and then take a nap in our bed while Kaiden took his morning nap so that Dave could get some rest before he would head down to Northside to visit Pierce. When Dave got home he sent Mom up to the hospital to hang with me. I sat in my room alone waiting for Mom, and I could hear babies crying around me and I suddenly felt very out of place and alone.

When Mom got there I decided that I would have her help me take a shower, the first shower after surgery is always a little scary, but it really wasn't that bad! In fact other then the one time that they had to change the bed pad shortly after surgery, and the nurse had to 'help' (read yank me to one side then the other) I don't really remember having any pain - thank God! At this point I didn't need help to get in or out of bed to go potty and other than having hot flashes I was feeling pretty good, considering. Once I got showered a few visitors stop over including Daddy & Kaiden and some friends from my teaching days. Dave picked up what milk I had been able to pump and headed down to Northside to see our baby and Mom took Kaiden back to the house for lunch and a nap. Once my room was empty again I wanted to sleep but just couldn't seem to doze off. Around 2:00ish my Dr. came in to check on me and see how I was doing, he had heard all about the drama of the evening before and wanted to come see me personally - see why we LOVE my doc?! He sat and chatted for a while, I went over what info I had on Pierce and then he said "how are you doing?" and I said great, then he asked if I felt like I was ready to go home and I said YES, but I don't want to over do it, so if he thought I needed to stay another night I would. But he said as long as I promised to take it easy I could get just as much rest at home so he signed my discharge papers! Woo Hoo I was a free woman!

Take me to see my BABY!!!!
So my doc signed my discharge papers for after 3, but Mom was at home with a napping Kaiden and Daddy was down by the perimeter with baby Pierce, so I just hung out in my room, again attempting to sleep but now I was WAY too excited! Around 5:30ish Dave showed up with the whole gang (minus one Pierce baby) and they helped me to pack my bags and get me home. We dropped off my prescriptions on the way home, I got a little nauseous on the drive home, but once I was on the couch with my feet up I felt fine. Dave brought me a nice big plate of lasagna and some ice water then he went back out to pick up my prescriptions. With a full belly and pain drugs in place Mom drove me down to Northside so I could spend some time with Pierce.

We found a wheel chair, which was fortunate, however it was the XXXL size wheelchair that barely fit in the elevator (yes it really was THAT large) and apparently my Mom does NOT have her XXXL wheelchair drivers license because she bumped into everything attempting to get me into and out of the elevator. Even better, we got off at the wrong floor, so I got to experience the fun all over again! Eventually we made our way up to the NICU, pod C and I got to see my baby again! We left our camera in the car, but Pierce's nurse used the NICU camera to take a few pictures of us with baby and they came out GREAT! (I'll try and get them uploaded, eventually) While there I got to do a diaper change, dress him and of course love on him for over an hour - it was wonderful! We made it home just in time to pass out and do it all over again the next day!!!