Monday, April 30th: Meeting Uncles Pat and Jason



Finnegan enjoying his "tummy time."

Christine-
After the nurse swapped out our rocker for a pull-out chair, I slept quite nicely into the morning. They gave Finnegan some time on his tummy this morning to move him around a bit. He looked so peaceful, but decided to scare me while rubbing his back. He had a 20 second long brady while on his tummy. It was scary watching the monitor continually show his decreased heart rate and as I rubbed his back and shook his little tooshy, it felt like minutes and not seconds that the monitor kept bleeping at me. When his rate finally came back up, he let out a little squeak as if to say, "Sorry, mom... I know I forgot to breathe that time." Some people's children... I tell ya!

I'm still a bit in disbelief that he will be a week old tomorrow. It feels like all of this has happened so fast, but at the same time, we've had to adjust so quickly that it seems like this is how it's been for months. I'm still struggling a little with accepting the fact that Finn's early birth was not my fault, but it's hard to fully accept when my body pretty much was trying to get rid of him. As I sat with him this morning, I told him that since I couldn't give him a good enough home inside of me, that maybe that was God's way of trying to bring us together as a family sooner, because he knew I would be able to provide a better home for him outside of the womb. He wiggled his tooshy at that, so I think he agreed with me. :)

I took a nice hot shower at the hospital today. The NICU has a locked area for families of the NICU patients. The "Family Suite" has 6 sleeping rooms and 2 full bathrooms. They even provide the towels, wash cloths, and soap! It's not the same as showering at home, but it did the trick!

Rounds:

My little boy soaking up the rays.

Finn will hopefully go off of the billi light tomorrow. They wanted to keep him on the phototherapy for one more day just in case his rates went back up. I can't wait to see those precious baby blues tomorrow!

Finn will finish his tummy priming on Thursday. After that, he will start getting breastmilk as nutrition and hopefully he will start gaining some weight! Until then, the doctor modified his TPN ingredients to hopefully remedy some of the lower counts on his most recent tests results.

Thursday/Friday Finnegan will get a preliminary head scan to check for any abnormalities or brain bleeds. This is the one test I am the most nervous about.

He is happy as long as his left hand is right up against his mouth!

Father Luke from our parish St. Patrick Church of Merna came to Peoria today to offer a blessing over Finnegan. Finn fussed for a while after respiratory therapy while Father Luke was there because he couldn't find his hand fast enough to put it up to his mouth. This was after a couple minutes of him trying to rip off his nose mask. What a feisty little bugger! Ian and I talked with Father Luke for a while before Father placed his hands over Finnegan and asked for God to protect and bless him. It brought tears to my eyes. He offered so much peace and comfort to me. Coincidentally, there is another family from our parish that is two rooms down in Finnegan's neighborhood, so Father Luke was playing double duty today.

Over the past week or so, it's been hard to imagine that there is a world outside of this hospital. Reality hit today as we received news that Ian's Uncle Don passed away after a long battle with several illnesses. I really never got to know Uncle Don that well, but his overall strength had been uplifting. Ian said that maybe Uncle Don will look after Finnegan and teach him a few tricks about how to beat the medical odds! May God bless the Braasch family as they grieve the loss of their husband, father, and grandfather.


Proud Uncles Jason and Patrick!

After lunch, I had a nap which helped ease some pain from my incision and deswell my elephant sized feet and ankles. When I woke up, we had a visit from Ian's best friends Pat and Jason....... I'm sorry, Finnegan's Uncle Pat and Uncle Jason. :) These two guys are some proud motorcycle-riding uncles! After a visit with Finn and some male bonding time, we headed back to Bloomington. We stopped on our way to get some dinner and pie at Busy Corner Bakery in Goodfield (AMAZING pie, people). Pat successfully made me hurt while laughing hysterically at him and his...interesting habits. I love those guys. I can't wait for their "play dates" with Finnegan.


They were quite amused by his little feet.

I think this might be the time where Jason started naming Finn's body parts. :)

They're still not sure why they are friends, but they are...!

Male bonding time. I think they all enjoyed it!

Now I sit upstairs propped up in bed, listening to my husband and his two best friends from childhood reminisce about old times and laugh about the most idiotic things. I guess boys will always be boys! :) Ian will head back to stay with Finnegan tonight, and I will stay at home to get some rest until tomorrow. I'm trying to stay at the hospital every other night. It wasn't as hard leaving him today, but I know I'll struggle when I can't wake up and walk to his little bed right away and say good morning. He is just too precious.
     * It was pretty late, so Ian stayed at home with me.

Oh... One very important thing I forgot to mention from this weekend. I received a care package from a friend at work on Saturday. Ian brought it to the hospital so we could open it together. When I opened it, I gasped and tears automatically started flowing. Within this box was a bag from Kim and her husband, Josh, and many cards, money, and gift cards from staff and teachers at Warrensburg-Latham. I had to stop and catch my breath before I continued reading all the cards and sorted through the list of names of people who had contributed to this care package. Ian and I were both completely overwhelmed with their generosity. If any of you are reading this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If Finn can't feel the love and support from all of you, Ian and I definitely do, and it means so much. We have decided to use some of the money/gift cards to purchase a nicer camera to capture more of Finnegan's beautiful progress. Thank you!