The McCathran Family: Day Five

Day five was officially a success! Jake's fever broke in the middle of the night so consequently he decided it would be really fun to play in his crib from 1 a.m-3 a.m. I kept hearing this loud banging sound and found he was entertaining himself by banging the blood pressure cuff the nurse had attached to the bed against the crib...over and over and over...I must say under normal circumstances I would have been annoyed, but since we seemed to finally have our "Jakers" back, I thought it was adorable! His temperature stayed down all day today as well. Dr. Heinle came by this morning and said we are set to go home tomorrow (Saturday). He kept us today to monitor Jake's temperature and blood pressure which has been slightly high. He increased the doses of his two heart medications to control the blood pressure and keep any fluid from gathering in Jake's lungs. Dr. Heinle's P.A. will be by in the morning to discharge us...she came by today and is one of our favorite people here. She's checked on Jake daily and has such a sweet spirit. Mary (the P.A.) gave us detailed instructions for caring for Jake at home as well as her pager number if he starts to get sick at home. She did say he needs to stay in for the next six weeks except for doctor's check-ups...she said to avoid church, parties, malls, etc...which are very "germy" this time of year. His immune system has been compromised since he was on the heart/lung bypass machine so we have to be extra careful. She said we can only have a few visitors at a time and to keep kids away from Jake for awhile. So...I think Ty and I will be watching lots of movies at home, taking Jake for LOTS of walks in his new wagon, and reading all the books we've been meaning to catch up on. After Ty goes back to work in January, he can watch Jake some in the evenings so I can run errands and get out of the house a bit. I'll have to pray for patience for the next month and a half as I do have a hard time being still. Obviously this is another lesson God wants to teach me! We will just be so glad to have Jake "fixed" though...staying in for awhile is not a big deal.

Today Jake was in such a good mood and finally started really laughing again. Destin sat him in the window sill and he enjoyed laughing at his reflection for quite awhile! My parents had to go back this morning which was really sad. We have been so blessed with such wonderful support and care from all of our parents and of course Destin as well as our family from afar that continually calls to check in on Jake. Mom and Dad made it home to Oklahoma safely though and I know they'll be back before too long to check on Jake. They had plenty of time this week to bond with Jake.

We just took a few pictures today...

Here's Jake looking adoringly up at Poppy. Dad was such a great comic relief for us in the hospital and can really make Jake smile.

We took Jake for another wagon ride today, but you can tell he enjoyed it much more than yesterday's ride. He actually sat up and waved at people in the hallway. Ty and Destin entertained Jake for a long while with videos on You Tube of other babies...he smiled and giggled. Destin also got him to eat ice which it turns out he loves! We were worried about him not having enough to drink today so the ice helped. I think he just likes feeding himself...Mr. Independent already.