Mother's Day at Home

I was wracking my brain to remember what we did last year for Mother's Day, and for the life of me, I can't remember. If I were to guess...I would say that I worked at the restaurant and then went to the hospital to see Kiera. I didn't even blog about it. Hmm. The only thing I DO remember is that my stepsons called me in the morning to wish me a happy Mother's Day, which, for me, made my day.

This year was really nice because the boys and Jer made me breakfast Saturday (today) morning while I had a massage in my front room, and they cleaned my kitchen afterwords! I usually don't get the boys on Mother's Day, so this was the closest I've come to having a little Mother's Day celebration with all the "kids" I "mother" in the same room! And...since Jer has to work tomorrow, this is a great day for us to do it. Kiera sat in her high chair with us and actually grabbed for her food bowl from the table. I don't believe any food actually got past her lips, but she did take the spoon with food on it and put it on her face and lips. It was kind of like eating, so we clapped for her and praised her efforts. She does like applause. She was, of course, a mess and had a bath and trach care shortly thereafter.

I also got to interview a nurse this afternoon who will be able to work 7am-3pm M-F after the 19th! Yeah! I hope she catches on to Kiera's needs quickly. It will be a while before I feel comfortable leaving her alone, but at least I'll get stuff done around the house and can schedule Mary Kay appointments. I also have a nurse to interview Tuesday who I think is available nights. If I have regular people scheduled then I will be able to use my other nurses for DATE nights, field trips to the zoo, appointments, or special occasions! What a relief. The night of nursing we had Wednesday where we got to sleep a whole night without alarms was SOOO NICE! I could get used to that, especially after last night where the SAT monitor beeped for about an hour between 3-4 am because Kiera was REALLY fast asleep and her heart rate kept dipping below 60 (which is still fine) and setting off the low rate monitor. I finally made some noise and touched her to just "wake" her enough to raise her heartrate a little to make it stop. I actually don't know how to change the alarm settings, but will make sure to find out! :)

Kiera seems much better since her 3 days of xopenex, and she'll finish her steroids tomorrow. We just went back to a 6 hour neb schedule last night, and she's doing great! She's, so far, doing okay keeping her eye patch on too.

Finally, Kiera and I watched "Carousel" both for the first time today, and what the heck!? That is one Rodgers and Hammerstein meander into bizarre! The main message seems to be telling girls that sometimes a man can "hit you, and it doesn't hurt at all." OMG! It's like battered woman syndrome made into a musical! We won't ever watch that again.

Love,
Therese