Kodak Moment

It is SO nice to be home!

Home Sweet Home.

We made it home!

It is so nice to be back and seeing Tanner in his own house finally.

Yesterday didn't quite go as planned when I went to go get Kollin from LAX. Of course, I got pretty lost again. I MapQuested the directions to get there, and they told me to go the wrong way! So this time it wasn't my fault.

I ended up in Pasadena, which was the opposite direction I should have been going. I called my dad, and he got me going the right way, and I was able to find it ok. Then on the way back to the Ronald McDonald house, we ended up in Pasadena AGAIN. Somehow we missed the freeway we were supposed to merge onto. Neither of us saw any signs for it! Needless to say, Kollin and I have a hate HATE relationship with California roads right now.

This morning we lounged around a little bit, then got ready to go and wait for the shuttle to pick us up to go to the airport.

We didn't ever end up going back to the hospital to get pictures in our shirts that we got, but that's ok.

We did, however, get the picture by Ronald McDonald that I wanted.

We got through the airport without any issues and the flight was great. Tanner slept the entire time but the landing where he started to get a little fussy. Such a good baby!

We are now home safe and sound. Finally able to relax. Kollin is taking a nap. So is Tanner. I'm thinking of joining in... so tired....

We still have a bunch of doctor appointments to keep checking up on Tanner to make sure that everything stays on the up and up. So it would still be much appreciated to keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

I wanted to thank everyone again that has kept us in their thoughts and prayers. Also for the nurses, doctors and surgeons that looked after our little Tanner. I am so thankful for each and every one of you!

The comments that have been left on this blog and on my FaceBook have really helped me through this tough time. They have lifted me up when I thought I couldn't fall down any further.

I loved reading the comments about those of you that have had similar stories as us, and how your children are doing so well and growing up. It comforted me, and still is comforting me SO much.

Thank you.

Follow Up Appointment ~ Passed!

So today was Tanner's follow up appointment at the hospital. I have been pretty nervous about this since we got discharged. If they found anything wrong, or he had any issues, they wouldn't let us go home.

My dad called the other day and said that my Grandma Cannon wanted to help us. He suggested to her that letting us have some of her Frequent Flyer Miles (she's got a ton) to get tickets to fly Kollin out here, and fly us all home would be a huge help. She, of course being the wonderful woman that she is, agreed to do this for us.

We have already gotten our tickets to fly home tomorrow, so I have been crossing my fingers and anything else that can be crossed, and praying that he would pass with flying colors.

We all got the the hospital today (including Kathy) and the dang parking lot was full. So we had to do a quick switcheroo in the car so Kathy could drive to the other parking lot and Tanner and I could go inside to make it to his appointment. We were already running a little late.

I got the screaming little Tanner into his stroller (he did not like being put in his car seat AT ALL), and grabbed the loaner car seat the hospital let us borrow until Kollin brought ours last weekend. Surprisingly, his stroller is easy to push and steer with just one hand luckily.

I have a little friend here helping me type now, so excuse any typos. She is the cutest little Eastern Indian girl named Miah. Her mom just told me she has surgery tomorrow. I am not sure what for since her mom doesn't speak very good English, but it is not her first one. Her little face has a big scar on it and one of her eyes is lower on her face than it should be. So I'm guessing some kind of tumor. Anyway, she's a cutie.

Anyway, we made it up to his appointment just a couple of minutes late. Whew! The nurse got him all checked in and did the normal blood pressure, temperature and weigh in routine. Of course, Tanner got pissed when the thermometer was stuck in his armpit. He said everything is looking great, and he even gained a little weight since we were discharged. Yay!

Then the nurse practitioner came and checked him out some more, took his stitches out,went over some things with me and answered my questions that I had. She was really nice. We had an adventure trying to hold Tanner still while she took out the stitches, be we eventually succeeded. He is very wiggly.

By the end of the appointment, she said that Tanner is looking great and that we are good to go home! I am so relieved that everything here has gone so well and how FAST it all happened. I was not expecting to be going home this soon, or even getting discharged from the hospital as soon as we did.

We have some more appointments at home later this week. We are going to see his Cardiologist on Thursday and then his Pediatrician on Friday. We're going to need to keep following up with them pretty often too to make sure he is still doing well. So we are not completely out of the woods yet, since so many things can still happen. But we are all still hoping and praying that this is it, and there won't be any further surgeries and he can be as normal as possible.

Kollin is flying in tonight, and I am going to go pick him up from the airport again. This time it is LAX. I'm hoping I'll be able to find it ok this time, and nothing like last weekend happens again when I went to go get him from Burbank Airport. My dad knows his way to LAX pretty well, so I'm sure I'll be able to call him if I get lost.

I am still hoping to be able to get the pictures I'm wanting sometime tomorrow before we have to go back to the airport and fly home. We didn't end up doing it last weekend. Just stayed in our room and spent time with Tanner and each other.

Hopefully the next time I update this we will all be home and in our own beds again. Tanner still has never been home yet, and I am so excited to see him in his own room with his own things!

Weekend at The Ronald McDonald House

Kollin got into town on Friday night! I went and picked him up from the airport and had quite the adventure. I got pretty lost on my way there, but found it. Then we got pretty lost on the way back. Oh well, at least we made it. The streets out here are terrible to navigate!
We spent the entire day in our room on Saturday since it was raining. We wanted to go do something with Tanner, but didn't want to take him out in the weather. We'll probably do the same thing today unless it starts looking a little better.
Tanner is still doing really well. We are so happy that he is holding up and we are finally able to spend some family time together. Kollin got to feed him a couple times yesterday, and snuggle with him a whole bunch.

This morning, Daddy woke up to this...
It was such a Kodak moment, I had to get a picture of it.

Hopefully today before I have to take him back to the airport, we'll be able to get some pictures that I'm really wanting.

We all got matching CHLA shirts (Tanner's is a 2T, the smallest they had, so it will drown him even more than his newborn clothes), and I want to get a picture somewhere at the hospital in them before we all go home.

I also want to get a picture of all of us by the Ronald McDonald figure here at the House before we check out.

I am still trying to update this as much as I can, but they don't have WiFi in the rooms here, and only downstairs in the kitchen area. Since our room is up on the 3rd floor, it's kind of a pain in the rear to come down here just to get on the computer.

We're having a great day so far, and hope you are too!

Bye Bye CHLA!

Tanner did it! He went an entire day without needing to be put back on oxygen. That meant that we were able to get discharged out of the hospital today!

We slept like this for a few hours this morning. It was so nice and cozy...
And then there was the good old car seat test.
He didn't like it, but passed! Whew!
Today is also the first day that he wore real clothes. Two weeks old, and finally has normal clothes on...
I realized that we didn't have any clothes here for him, and that we were getting discharged so soon. Kollin is bringing them when he comes into town, along with his car seat. So we had to borrow a car seat from the hospital for now, and I found a Ross and went and bought some clothes to hold us over til Daddy gets here.

He probably needs preemie stuff since he's lost weight since he was born, but they didn't have any. Smallest I could find was newborn, and it drowns him! Still so cute though!

And yes, I cried when it hit me that we were really leaving.
We are now all settled into the Ronald McDonald House. We are going to be here until Tuesday when our follow up appointment is at the hospital with a Cardiologist. After that, we get to go home!

Also, Kollin is flying in tomorrow for the weekend. We are soooo excited to see him, and he can't wait to see us.

I'm thinking a trip to Disneyland is in order. At least to the front gates to get a picture to be able to someday look back at all of this and laugh. (Kollin doesn't think it's a good idea since Tanner is still recovering, but we'll see) We'll show Tanner his private plane ride, and his first trip to Disneyland! lol

Recovery ~ Day 6

Well, today didn't go quite as expected. We didn't end up getting discharged. This is because Tanner is still having some issues with his oxygen saturation. He has been off of his oxygen all day today though and has being doing great. So hopefully discharge will happen tomorrow.

I don't want to push it though until he is completely ready. Since we are going back to Utah where the elevation is quite different than here, it could cause him more harm than good to go home if he is not stable enough with his oxygen saturation.

Other than this, all of the other updates I am getting from the doctors are very positive and they are happy with his progress.

I have also been able to start nursing him again today. It is so nice, since I can now feed him whenever he is hungry and not have to wait for a nurse to bring me some milk that I have pumped.

They did this last night, and there were times when he would be crying and screaming for almost 30 minutes from being hungry before his "scheduled" feeding. We are now being rebellious, and eating whenever he wants. HA!

So that is pretty much all that went on today. Just playing the waiting game now. But I am more than willing to wait as long as it takes just to make sure he is ok and strong enough to go home without any issues.

Here are some cute pictures that we took today. He is such a little goofball already! Enjoy! Also, excuse my double chin. I was looking down at a weird angle. lol

Yay the Floor! eh...

Written 1-27-12

It was pretty exciting getting moved to the floor since it was the last step before getting discharged. There were some nice things about it, and also some not so nice things.

When we first got settled of course I needed to pump again. So I went to the desk and asked where I needed to go. At first I got a little frustrated because they didn't seem to know where to tell me to go or anything. But then they next thing I knew they brought me my own pump right to our room! I was finally able to pump whenever I needed to without having to wait for anyone else. The only problem is we shared a room with another patient and his mom, so I had to figure a way to point myself into a corner and position the curtain just right. Also, the sink in the room to be able to wash my pump stuff was on the side where they were. So sometimes I felt like I was intruding, but other than that? Great!

Speaking of that other patient, he was a very cute little Hispanic boy. Probably 3 or 4. I overheard that all of his internal organs were flipped. So what should have been on the left was on the right and visa versa. So I didn't blame him one bit for constantly whining. But the fact that he was also constantly coughing? Kinda freaked me out and made me wonder why they would have put a baby fresh out of heart surgery in a room with a sick kid.

I asked the nurses about his coughing, if he was sick and if we should be moved to another room. They said they would go check on that. .........??? When they finally came back (a couple hours later) they said he was not contagious and not to worry. Thanks for leaving me high and dry and worrying for the last couple hours though ladies!

After we were on the floor I never left the hospital. The only times I would go back to the Ronald McDonald house to shower and change was if Kathy was with Tanner. I loved being able to stay with him overnight and care for him more. But it also made me very cautious of the staff.

The first night we were there, I heard a baby crying one room away from us for over an hour before anyone went in to check on her. Was she hungry? Was she in pain? Was she just lonely? NO IDEA! After that I was all that much more determined to always have either myself or Kathy with Tanner while we were there.

One kind of fun thing was that Tanner needed an x-ray while we were on the floor. I was expecting that we would be rolled off somewhere to have this done. Nope! Next thing I knew, the x-ray guy was knocking on the door and dragged his huge machine into our room. Awesome! Tanner was able to be x-rayed right in his own room in his own bed. It was so nice.