We Made it to 3C

Sorry, not the best photo....but here's the scrapbook page of the 'big move'. Between 5 and 6 weeks old, we got word that Jairus was ready to move to the children's ward, and a bed had come available. Good-bye isolette, hello big-boy crib.

He was still so tiny, and I was extremely nervous leaving him. I remember crying as we left the hospital that night. His cry was so tiny that I was sure the nurses wouldn't hear him, so far away at the nurses station. And what if he threw up? They wouldn't hear that either, and he could choke...

Of course, he was fine. A few days later, he went for a swallow study. Now that he was in the children's ward, he got a new occupational therapist, Anne. Aune (Ah-na) from the NICU was still around alot though and the two ladies accompanied us down to the x-ray department. The biggest concern was that between the NPT in one nostril to keep his airway open, and an ng-tube down the other side for feedings, Jairus was going to find sucking on a bottle quite overwhelming. I think I've mentioned before that our 'team' had been getting alot of suggestions from Sick Kids in Toronto, and their protocol insisted that babies with NPT's could not/should not bottle feed. But we were going to try it anyway....

He did awesome. He drank like a pro and didn't aspirate anything. Aune was so excited that she nearly went running back to her office to phone Sick Kids and report our success. It was so exciting! We could now try him on a bottle before his feeds. At first we used a very small bottle with a preemie nipple. Cleft babies almost always have troubles sucking well, so there's a few options out there---the Habermann feeder was one, but no one at Mac had really used it much and I couldn't figure it out....We ended up using the Johnson-Mead squeezie bottle. It was a sort-of flat bottle made of really soft plastic. We couldn't use it very long because the plastic would start to break down after washings, but we could squeeze it really easily to help Jairus eat.

Jairus had a roomate on 3C, a little Chinese boy named Victor. I don't know exactly what was wrong with Victor (of course, the privacy issues prevented many moms from chatting much) but actually, Victors mum was never there. It was really sad. He was about 4-6 months old I think, and he had had surgery in his tummy for some problem that I think was quite serious. Victors mom and grandma would show up once in a while, maybe once or twice a week (the grandma much more than the mom) and she would dance around his crib saying something in Chinese that sounded like 'ha-now'. I remember having to call for the nurse a number of times for Victor because otherwise, no one else would....

Finally, since Jairus was out of the NICU, family could come and see him. Many of my siblings weren't old enough at the time (although we snuck 14 year old Lauren in) to come into the NICU and they were bitterly disapointed to have to wait nearly 6 weeks to see their first nephew. I remember once taking him over to the glassed-in door of the NICU while they all waited on the other side for a glimpse--I think the nurses felt badly....
But now they could come to the room and hold him--Auntie Maya, Uncle Ben, Auntie Emma and Uncle Paul. (I'll have to scan some of those in later). Uncle Ryan came and read our childhood favourite "Fish is Fish".
We settled into a new routine and became familiar with the ward. We left Dr. Marrin behind in the NICU and met new pediatricians on 3C--they rotated through much quicker than in the NICU--I think every week. Trying to save on take-out, I searched the internet for microwavable caseroles, as the kitchenette we were allowed to use didn't have a stove. I learned how to roll up blankets all around Jairus to make that big crib more comfortable for him. The nurses continued to teach us how to tube feed him, change his NPT and adjust his O2 sat probe--which always seemed to be coming loose and scaring the bejeebers out of us!

Shortly after graduating to 3C, Jairus made his television debut.....