We're home!!

I should start by thanking everyone for all of the prayers for Landon over the last three weeks! They worked! We finally came home yesterday! We really weren't sure what to expect for Landon once we got home. His eating could have gone either direction, it could have improved or it could have decreased. Fortunately, his eating has improved. It isn't an incredible improvement, but definitely an improvement!

Landon's first meeting with his pets went well. At first, Grit (our greyhound) didn't even notice him and Patsy (our English Pointer) was more excited that I was home to notice him. When they finally realized there was a new person in the house, they were very interested. I think Rig (our cat) was more curious about him than the dogs were. He even stepped up on the car seat to be able to smell Landon's face! Then he went from one side to the other to check out Landon. Patsy still isn't sure what to think. But I think she is starting to realize that she has another person to protect. Grit could honestly care less that there is a small person in the house.

Once we got home, I felt very overwhelmed with the status of our house. There was stuff everywhere! It took a little time yesterday, but I was able to get enough done that I could go to sleep! Today brought more to do and slowly our house is starting to look like our home again.

We are very happy to be home! I will continue to update the blog, but probably not daily as I have been. Again, thank you to everyone for all of the prayers and support through this difficult time. While Landon isn't completely out of the woods, we really feel like he is headed in the right direction.

Landon was so well-liked in his unit that when he was dressed to leave, our favorite nurse Tina took him out for a parade to say good-bye to the staff.

Our little brown cow!

Future wrestler? And Super Exciting Day!!

As horrible as yesterday was, today was the complete opposite! Landon's pain was brought under control with Tylenol and morphine. He received three doses of morphine total and has seemed to have gotten all of it out of his system. He doesn't have that dopey look anymore. He did have a fair amount of awake time this afternoon. We did get him to eat orally for his 2:00 feed and then also for his 5:00 feed. That is a great accomplishment, especially after dealing with pain killers and anesthesia.

We got possibly the greatest news possible! We are going home tomorrow! As long as Landon continues to have a good night, we will be heading home tomorrow. This is just the most amazing news for us. We really feel that if we can get him home and into a routine with us, that he will improve a lot. Home Health Care has already been set up for us, so his pump will be delivered tomorrow shortly after we get home. We have his prescriptions filled and we have some formula ready to go home with us to be able to fortify his food at home. We feel so blessed to be getting to our goal of home!

Grandma and Grandpa Bausman came for their last hospital visit today and took some things home for us so we have less to pack into the truck tomorrow. We also had some very special visitors tonight...the UW Wrestlers were here and a few of them stopped in to see Landon! They also gave him a signed poster!

Landon was even awake for the guys!!

Post Surgery

Landon finally had his surgery around 5:00 pm today. Because of an emergency, Landon got bumped back, so he went about 14 hours without any food. The surgery went very well, however he seems to be in a lot of pain right now. The plan was to only have him on Tylenol, but he is now on morphine also. Fortunately, he now has a full belly which will hopefully help him be more comfortable. I really think he just needs to adapt to the button in his stomach and recover from the surgery. It is heartbreaking though to see that scared look on his face. He just doesn't understand why he is in pain and he just looks at us like he is begging us to take it away. I would switch places with him in a heartbeat! We may have a long night ahead of us.

We are still under the impression that we will be going home on Friday, but I'm sure we will know more about that tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a training day for Nick and I to learn how to care for the button and how to feed Landon.

Last night we had to switch rooms and we returned to the room we started in. It is a shared room and very small! Let's hope it is only for a couple of days and then we can be out! Please keep sending prayers for us to get home soon and for Landon to recover from this surgery quickly.

Aunt Megan came tonight for a brief visit with Landon and brought dinner for her and me.

This is from a couple days ago. His NG tube has now been removed. 

Surgery

Today Nick and I discussed the option of the G tube for Landon. While we don't like the idea of him having another surgery, having the G tube gets us much closer to home. The G tube will be inserted directly into his stomach. He will still be allowed to eat orally, but he will no longer have a tube down his throat to impair his eating. Originally we were against having the G tube, but after hearing all the advantages of it, we realized Landon needs it. The NG tube can be uncomfortable for him in his throat. It is taped to his cheek, which can cause problems for him. The G tube can't be seen when he has clothes on, so people won't know he has it unless we tell them. The biggest advantage of the G tube is that we will get home much sooner than with the NG tube. 

So...surgery will be tomorrow afternoon! We have been told that he will have to stay for 1-2 nights after the surgery and then should be able to go home. However, we have had our hopes up before and don't want to get too excited for fear of being let down again. After the surgery, we will be trained in how to feed Landon with the G tube and how to care for it. 

We are very excited about this new development and hope for the best with it. Landon has continued to gain weight on a daily basis. He is back to his birth weight now and hopefully will be even more in the morning. Because of the surgery, he can't eat anything after 6:00 am. Thankfully he is weighed before that! 

Our visitors today were my cousins Elizabeth and Zac. Nick went to Monroe tonight for a mandatory training at the fire department. He intended to stay home tonight and go to work tomorrow to return here tomorrow night. Those plans changed once I got word of the surgery for tomorrow. I found out at 6:20 tonight! So Nick will be back tonight since the surgeon will be in around 6:30 am tomorrow morning to see us. 

Sitting up like a big boy!

 One of our amazing nurses, Tina, hooked Landon up with a bouncy seat! He loved it!

3 weeks old today!

Today brought us more tests and not many answers at this point. ENT came and redid the test that was done on Saturday. A camera was put through his nose and down his throat to check his vocal chord. There really wasn't much change since Saturday, but it was moving a little today. We are confident that the chord will be fine. The doctors don't think it is impairing him at this point. He also had a swallow test done today. This was done in radiology and he had to drink barium to see if he is aspirating while eating. He was also supposed to have an upper GI test done, so he had not eaten since 9:00 am. The test was done around 2:00 pm! He handled it all like a champ and stayed pretty calm. Unfortunately, we learned that he didn't have to have the upper GI test done, so he could have been eating! The speech and feeding specialists saw that he is aspirating a tiny bit while eating, so we just have to alter how we feed him.

We are waiting to hear from the general surgeon as to whether or not they think Landon should have a G tube inserted into his stomach. It seems like our cardio surgeon would like to have it done to help his VSDs (holes in his heart). He wants Landon to grow to see what will happen with the VSDs. If the VSDs shrink with his growth, then he doesn't have to have another heart surgery. All of this is very overwhelming and we would prefer he not have the G tube since that will involve another surgery, but we are going to do whatever needs to be done to get Landon better and home with us.

Grandma and Grandpa Bausman came again today because of busy schedules this week. They aren't sure when they will be back this week, so wanted to get to see him today. He is such a sweet boy and everyone who meets him loves him! I just can't wait until everyone who is reading this can meet him! There are a couple of nurses who have very big soft spots for Landon!

One of his many awake moments

Our friend Tammy Hartwig gave Landon these super cute socks. EVERYONE who sees them, loves them!

Our little sleeping angel...he is exhausted from his busy day of tests.

test, test, test

Today doesn't come with very exciting news. This morning a pediatric surgeon came in and said that on top of the swallow test tomorrow, they will be checking to see if Landon needs to have a G tube put into his stomach. If that is the case, that will be another surgery. He also mentioned possibly doing a surgery to help the reflux. I'm not sure what that will entail and I was a bit blindsided by him coming in and telling me all of it that I didn't really get a chance to digest all of it and ask questions. Hopefully we will have more answers tomorrow.

As for the rest of today, Landon's eating habits have been about the same as the past couple of days. He has had a lot of awake time tonight. He was up for about two hours, slept for a half an hour and woke up hungry...an hour before feeding. While that is a good thing that he is hungry early, it threw me off! He had a little "snack" and went back to sleep. He is up for his regular feeding now, so hopefully that goes well. His 11:00 feeding last night was amazing! Of his 60 mLs, he took 57! He really didn't have a choice though because part of the way through feeding, he was getting his diaper changed. During the diaper change, he pulled his NG tube out! We really don't like to put it back in after he has eaten, so he almost had to finish the whole bottle!

We have been told that we may move upstairs to the NICU so they can help with his eating. We also have been told that that won't happen before tomorrow since he is having tests done that could be surgically related. However, the attending physician this week mentioned that Landon is the least sick child on the floor and he may move sooner than expected. He said he couldn't promise that it wouldn't be the middle of the night, but hoped that it wouldn't be. We told him we are flexible and will move whenever they need us to. Currently, there is one room open on our floor and that is the shared room we started in when we got here. The night nurses have had busy nights the last two nights, which is not a good thing and it doesn't look like that is going to change tonight. We only pray that it does.

Today's visitors were Grandma and Grandpa Bausman, Uncle Mike and Aunt Kelly, and Aunt Megan and Taylor.

Not, Landon, but....this is what happens when you've spent 3 weeks in the hospital!

Awake and eating!