Great Expectations: HOME

If you haven’t guessed, I’m a dreamer.

Thus the reason I call this blog, “One Woman’s Dream.” (I’ll probably change the name again, it still isn’t my favorite… anyone have suggestions, I’m all ears!)

Anyway, so now that we have a PLAN and a DATE (TOMORROW!!!!), I’m in PLAN PLAN PLAN mode.

I’m also in DREAM mode. All the things I want to “do” when we get home keep whirling in my mind. Because… I’ll be home, right? No more hospital residency… I’ll be able to get everything done I haven’t gotten done in the last year!

Let’s see, I want to…

• Rock Annabelle for hours in my rocking chair.
• Plant flowers (we still have out our pansies we planted in the fall and they are looking pretty puny…)
• Print out pictures and get Annabelle’s pics hung in to-be-bought picture frames so our walls show our FOUR girls not just three.
• Scrapbook (I’m still on Karalynn’s… she’s almost 11….)
• Organize EVERY room in the house so we know EXACTLY where everything is. (stop rolling your eyes! This has been on my list for 11 years and will stay on it by golly!)
• Garage sale to get rid of stuff we don’t need when I do the thing above. (if you don’t know me well, I am a garage sale fanatic… both of the “putting on” and the “buying cheap crap” variety)
• Finish birthday shopping for Gabby (and soon Annabelle too!)
• COUPONS! We have TLC here at the hospital (we are cheap and have no cable at home) and I am in awe of Extreme Couponers! Granted, I have no room (nor any desire) for huge stockpiles… but $600 worth of groceries for 42 cents sounds AMAZING with my current not really employed status! (understood that that is totally unrealistic… be we are talking about dreams here!)
• Get all my kiddos on a chore schedule (this will be our 30th attempt…)
• Reteach my kiddos our rules (My mother-in-law has done a FABULOUS job… but the kids tend to take advantage sometimes… and as my MIL has been telling them… just wait until Momma gets home!)
• WRITE!!!! I’ve done a little here and there from the hospital, but I have this HUGE desire to dive in again. I have two books I’d love to do some pretty massive edits on, and one book that I’ve started that I want to overhaul and finish. Not to mention the gazillion other ideas floating through my head just itching to be down on paper…
• Lose weight. I am a self-professed stress eater, and decided a while ago that the stress of trying to “lose” weight while at the hospital wasn’t worth it. Thus I haven’t even close to lost all my “Annabelle” weight…
• Organize our finances so we can make smart/wise decisions (and track expenses which given my job situation will be really important this year!)

And this is only a very small sampling of the things running through my head, and doesn’t include things everyday things like spending time with ALL my kids and hubby as a family, doing my own dishes, cleaning my own house, etc.

Then I got this huge dose of reality. I’m bring home a baby with very special, unique needs that will need a TON of care.

A very brief synopsis of what my day will be like:

6:00 a.m. MEDS
8:00 a.m. Turn off her continuous night feeds (she is Gtube fed)
8:00 a.m. Breathing Treatment
10:00 a.m. MEDS
10:00 a.m. Turn on her first feed of the day (lasts about an hour and 15 minutes currently…)
11:00 a.m. Annabelle’s Nap
2:00 p.m. MEDS
2:00 p.m. Turn on her 2nd feed of the day
4:00 p.m. Annabelles #2 nap
6:00 p.m. Turn on her 3rd feed of the day
8:00 p.m. Turn on continuous night feeds
8:00 p.m. Breathing Treatment
9:00 p.m. Night Night time for Annabelle! (includes some meds I can’t give while she is sleeping)
10:00 p.m. MEDS
12:00 a.m. Add more feeds for her Gtube (4 hours worth)
4:00 a.m. Add more feeds again

This doesn’t taken into account 2 clinic visits a week (Monday Thursday) that take up the whole afternoon, PT, OT, and Speech therapy which schedules I don’t have yet. It also doesn’t take into account that I have 3 other children that need attention and food and baths, and a house that will need cleaned, laundry that will need done… all the normal mom stuff! And I’m working from “home” on a contract basis on projects to continue to earn money for that least the next few months, so I’m fitting those in there as well. Oh… and on the Meds… this isn’t just GIVING them… but I have to draw them all up too. And considering she gets up to 14 meds at a time… that is time consuming too!

Thankfully, my Mother-in-law will be with us for the next few weeks which will be a BIG help, and my hubby is there too (but he is diligently looking for employment, so praying he isn’t there, during the day, for too long!!!!)

But yeah, my list of “dreams” is starting to look a little dubious at the moment!

So, I’m taking all I have learned about time management from my many years working in a Corporate environment and applying them here. Do things in order of most important, most urgent, to least important, least urgent.

With that in mind, the first two things I will concentrate on are:

Rocking Annabelle for hours on end in her own room and reteaching my kids all the rules… HA! Yes, I am that kinda Momma!

TODAY though we are concentrating on wrapping things up here, making sure we have prescriptions/home health things, and personally, I’m making a TON of lists. I’m also going to be doing a refresher CPR class later this afternoon… although I’m praying I don’t have to worry about that particular item!

Scott took home a car-load of “stuff” and we kept just what we would need until Tuesday. Her room is looking BARE!!! It is SO SO SO nice!

**update**

The medical supply people came, and we now have OXYGEN for going HOME!!!  And the oxygen concentrator and feed stuff will be delivered at our house later today! EEEE!!!

BIG prayer request though: On Annabelle’s labs this morning, her sodium and her chloride were too low by quite a bit. We are still trying to figure out how to get her electrolyte balance right combined with her diaretics.They changed up some meds… some pretty big changes for Annabelle, and we will recheck in the morning.

As long as it doesn’t look “worse” tomorrow, we can still go home, but if it doesn’t get much better, we’ll have to come back for daily or every-other-day checks until we can get it stable. If her electrolytes are worse… we stay another day or two. Not horrible, but I am PRAYING they are better so we can go HOME!

Also please pray that she can keep her GOOD respiratory status with less diaretics too! I think she will be fine, but big changes in meds day before “go home” date makes Momma a wee bit nervous!

*another side note*

My church is coordinating “meals” for us for the next month… and I know so many others have asked if they could help in this way after we get home. If that is you (I’ve lost track of who all offered!), let me know privately (krista at kristaphillips dot com) and I will give you the meal coordinator’s e-mail address.

THANK YOU again everyone for your prayers and support! We have been absolutely overwhelmed with your outpouring of love

Annabelle’s FIRST TRIP EVERY outside!!! There is a little garden on the 6th floor, and we got permission to take her outside on a very pretty day! Also appropriate is that the picture is of all FOUR of Momma’s princesses in front of the Castle!!