King Lear

Today was day 8 in the NICU. I don't know how many of you have been blessed to take a vacation that was over a week, but I've noticed with Aaron & I that day 8 is when we hit a wall. It's usually the day we do something that involves riding buses or stereotypical touristy things.

Today was that day on Duncan's trek home. We both hit serious walls and had to simply leave the hospital. It was getting too hard to watch our little man. He's doing really well, by the way. His doctor calls him King Lear since you can't say the actual name of the Scottish play...I think that's adorable. He's getting stronger and his reflexes in his upper body are improving. Unfortunately, he had 3 brady episodes while he was sleeping. He converted himself but if there are any serious episodes he has to stay in the NICU for 5 days without one before he can come home. Breathing is pretty important...But he hasn't had a serious episode so we're still good there.

His parents are holding up. We're both pretty much exhausted and weary and overwhelmed. We both know Duncan is fine and in the best hands. Wrapping our hearts around seeing him every day in the hospital is much more difficult to do. But we're trying. That's why we're home this afternoon. We need to take a break from all the emotions at the hospital from ourselves and from everyone around us. Leaving our little guy in the good hands of the nurses will give us a break and allow us to recoup some of our energy reserves and emotional barriers. Not emotional barriers to each other but to everyone else. When we start getting wrapped in the other stories at the NICU we lose energy and focus on Duncan. So we need to rebuild walls so we can take better care of each other and Duncan.

No pictures today - I need to post this & get to bed so maybe Aaron will let me go to the hospital at 9...