Season's Greetings

Our Christmas turned out to be ok. As Aly mentioned, I didn't go to the hospital on the 24th because I was a bit sniffely. I was really worried about giving anyone at the hospital a cold - be it doctors, nurses or, of course, the boys. A day in bed and lots of fluids did the trick, though, and I was up for going to the hospital on Wednesday. 

There was some signs of baby colds in the boys on Tuesday but their vital signs were good and their breathing was excellent. The ventilators can deliver up to 100% oxygen but the goal is 21% - which is the percentage oxygen in the air. Both boys were on "room air" on Tuesday and Wednesday and that's a really good sign that their tiny lungs are doing ok. 

Aly and I had decided some time ago that we were not going to make any plans for Christmas. As anyone who reads these blogs knows, it's not uncommon for something scary to happen and we didn't want to plan anything that couldn't be cancelled at a moment's notice. Strangely, neither of us have really let the "Holidays", as the Americans say, upset us too much. Mostly because there's been plenty to take our mind off of it and, personally, my situation at work has been a little easier to handle because the office is a bit more laid back from Thanksgiving onwards. 

The main thing on the agenda for us was a proposed procedure for Charlie to deal with his retaining fluid in his fontanels. I have mentioned before that Charlie's brain is a topic that I know we haven't covered in very much detail in these posts and that's going to continue for now. Anyway, it was agreed that Charlie needed a procedure and it was agreed that the procedure would be done in the OR on December 26th. I mention the OR because the other surgeries they have had have been "bedside", where the surgeon makes the room sterile and does it in his bed. The OR is in "The West Tower". Texas Children's Hospital has been around for a while but a few years ago they expanded by building "The Pavilion for Women", which is where the boys were born. The Pavilion is what I would call a maternity hospital. It has a NICU - a really good one - but they mostly want to deal with the newborns that need some help. Our boys, as you have gathered, need a lot of help and, so, are candidates for a transfer to the main hospital. Or, as we say, they are to be sent to the tower. On Christmas Day, we got a bunch of good news. Firstly, Charlie's head was declared good enough that they didn't need to do the surgery right away. Secondly, we didn't need to move to the tower yet, since Charlie wasn't going to the OR. Thirdly, Charlie's operation on his belly had been a success and it was time to try him on feeding. Aly has been pumping breast milk ever since they were born so we are delighted that they are ready to use it. 

Aly's parents, Rob and Suellen, had asked us if they could spend time with us on Christmas Day and our first answer was that they should make another plan because we were only planning to be going to the hospital. That didn't influence them one bit and, once it was looking like things were going ok, we made a plan for them to come down to the hospital and see us all. The boys continued to be steady and, after rounds and after our good news extravaganza we started to make plans to eat. On Thanksgiving Day, Aly and I had sneaked out to the Four Seasons in Downtown Houston where they had a really impressive buffet. We agreed to give that a try. Even though they were fully booked, some nice guy who turned out to be the director of food and beverage took pity on me and found us a table and we all had a great feed. Charlie and Henry were not the only Fitzpatrick men with distended bellies. I stuffed my face.

We have no photos from Christmas Day so here is another one from our festive photo shoot.

(D)