Hospital Time

Last year, after finding out that we were having a baby girl, I bought some fabric to have the boys (Mikey and Roger) make her a quilt. I cut the squares...well, actually they were rectangles, but the boys did the rest.
Knowing that it would be a great fine motor exercise, I taught them how to sew by hand. Every day they had to sew a certain number of squares while we listened to a Spanish Instructional CD. I listed to it with them, but I am not any better at learning the language.
The boys sewed the rectangles into strips, then sewed the strips together. It was really interesting to see they boys sew for their personalities and work ethic showed through. Mikey always finished his work and would usually do some extra, but his stitches tended to be sloppy and I would frequently have to help him undo a knot. Roger's stitches were amazing, the spacing was immaculate and precise, but he wouldn't always finish his work for he would start day-dreaming or goof off.

After the boys got the front all pieced together, I laid out the batting and the material for the back. They helped me pin the front to the batting and back, then we cut it. Grant was even able to help cut, which he loved and was upset when he couldn't cut anymore.
With the blanket all pinned together, I introduced my sewing machine to the boys. I gave them a little lesson on how it worked and how to use it. After letting them practice on scraps, I let them take turns sewing the blanket together following the long rows of the pattern.
All of this was done before Evee was born. All that was left was the binding. Though I had planned on teaching the boys how to bind it, I just never got around to it. When my mom came, she decided to just do the binding herself. 

Monday, the day after Evee was extubated (breathing tube out), my mom brought the boys to see Evee. The boys brought the finished blanket and very proudly gave it to Evee.

All of the nurses love my boys. They think they are so cute. Everyone is also impressed with how affectionate my boys are with Evee, even with all of the "new and scary" things going on with her and sticking out of her. I was told that most of the siblings in this situation will take a long time to warm up their sibling with "weird" medical things going on. Little do they know that my boys have been hearing about medical things since they were very little, looking at medical textbooks, and asking everyday for Todd to narrate what he saw.

Before everything went down, the kids and I were going to go to Utah to visit my family on February 20th. I think I had jinxed myself for I said, "I can't live in fear that something may happen. I've just got to plan on living my life".  It turned out being a good thing that we had the kids' airline tickets for it was decided that my mom would take the boys (using those flights) back to Utah with her for two weeks. Honestly, I had hoped that Evee would be out of the hospital soon after they left, but that's a whole other issue.

Knowing that I hadn't spent much time with my boys, and that they would be in Utah for two weeks, my mom insisted that I came home to spend time with them. Many days I would leave the hospital in the evening (with my heart breaking to be leaving my baby) and drive the 45 minutes to see my boys, spend some time with them, and go to bed. When I would get to my house, if Todd wasn't staying at the hospital, my mom would take the car and go to the hospital to stay the night with Evee.
I won't lie, all of this was very exhausting, physically and emotionally. I hated leaving my baby, but loved seeing my boys. Hated leaving my boys, but loved seeing my baby. But, wherever I was, I was sure to do some Facetime.

 My mom did such a great job with my boys, though I know it wasn't all smooth and dandy. She brought them to the hospital many times, and did fun projects at home.

Evee was in such a cranky mood all week. This is exactly opposite to Evee's normal disposition, so it was very frustrating.

She whined and whined.

I'm not sure I ever saw a smile

Miss Betsy (her PT) came and worked with her. Betsy was cautious and considerate, knowing that Evee had just gone through surgery, but when Betsy worked Evee, Evee complained like she normally does.

But Betsy did say that she has had grown ups and older kids say how painful a chest tube is, so I had to give the poor baby some sympathy.

I actually had a lot of sympathy for my baby, but I was getting concerned with why she was acting this way.
She was incredibly irritable. She wasn't even happy that on Valentine's Day I had brought her a cute outfit to wear.

She wasn't getting a great amount of sleep. During the day she would awake to anything going on, and at night time she was woken up frequently.

 
She was chewing on her fingers a lot, so I assumed that she was teething. I tried feeling her gums, but did not feel anything. I gave her some numbing stuff on her gums, but that didn't seem to help.

One evening I noticed her arms were shaking. Turns out that Evee was having withdrawals from the narcotics. This made me so sad.
Valentine's Day Evee and I got "dressed up"

Yes, this is me dressed up

That's what happens when you're in the hospital.
Todd joined Evee and I after his classes at work. My mom (who happened to get long stem roses from an admirer, and THREE Valentine's Day cards sent to her while at my house!) brought the boys downtown.

And we went to lunch at The Melt. A local favorite that specializes in big sandwiches.

My boys had picked up some Valentine gifts for me, and they very excitedly gave me them. Roger was especially anxious for me to open my Pez dispenser from him and share it with everyone.
That night I came home. My mom had signed up to feed the missionaries. We had fed the missionaries on Christmas, so we joked that we were just trying to feed them for every holiday. The missionaries are great. They are so positive and bring a great spirit with them. They gave us a great lesson, as they always do.
Not too shabby for a Hospital Valentine!

By Saturday morning I was getting really nervous about Evee. I was feeling anxiety. She wasn't acting like herself and I felt as though something was going to go down, that maybe we were missing something.
I happened to see Evee's neurologist, Dr. N, and asked her if she could stop by when she had time. I explained my concern, which she validated. She had checked on Evee earlier and was surprised with how upset she was.
Just a little while later, Evee finally fell asleep. I asked the nurse, Sarah, if she could make sure that no one disturbed Evee while she was sleeping, for she needed to get some rest. When Todd's parents came an hour later, we met with them in the waiting room for I did not want to wake Evee up.
After Evee woke up, we went into her room. There, in her bed, was the Evee we all knew and loved.

She was playing with her hands.

She was hitting herself.

She was blowing raspberries.

She was back to herself.

I was so relieved. I had been so worried about her. I wanted my sweet girl back. I had wondered if it was something to do with the shunt still being externalized, but it all turned out great.

Life was good. Until.......