In Edmonton

What a crazy week it has been. It's hard to believe that Dominic arrived a whole week ago, yet at the same time, it's hard to believe he has ONLY been here for a week. I think I said that about Rosalie too. Everything is craziness when it comes to babies.

It has been quite the whirlwind week though.

All day on Dominic's birthday he did really really well. He was only on an IV and didn't need any medication or apparatuses of any kind. We tried feeding him with a special needs bottle, and it didn't go awesome, we both had some learning to do with how to get the best results, but we did make progress.

Saturday morning I showed up for rounds (an update for each baby with the whole team for the day), and saw that Dominic now had a CPAP on (which is like a face mask that provides forced air), and was told that this was because he started to have trouble breathing in the very early morning. I had wondered why they hadn't called me to come feed him after about 2am, but figured someone just forgot. They also decided to just feed him through his IV so that he could get used to the mask without having to worry about asphyxiating on breast milk. I was disappointed, but I hadn't had much milk coming in yet, so I thought taking a day to get it in would help me out a bit.

After that things just kept seeming to go downhill. I don't remember what order things happened in, but they found a clot near his liver, his blood oxygenation levels weren't ideal, he needed a tube in his belly button that would prevent me from being able to hold him... a bunch of things.

Tuesday was the day that his cardiologists had a conference call with all of the other Western Canadian cardiologists to discuss their patients and make a plan for their surgeries and treatments and stuff. Dominic's cardiologists presented his case and it was determined that transferring him to Edmonton as soon as possible would be ideal. We were told he could go as early as the following day, Wednesday. Roland and I panicked a bit. We weren't ready, we thought he would go that week to be ready for his 10 day birthday (the following Monday), but we didn't think he would go SO early. We cracked down and figured out a plan, and tried to get as much done as we could that we needed to take care of before we left.

Wednesday morning, we were told that the NICU in Edmonton was at capacity, so he probably wouldn't be going today, but likely tomorrow, but definitely by Friday. We relaxed a bit, went out for lunch at the Berry Barn, Roland and Brayden went to a movie while Rosalie and I took a nap. At 4:00pm we found out that a space had opened up in Edmonton and that Dominic would be transferred at 7:00pm that night. We were in a total frenzy getting everything ready. Booking hotels, packing our bags, calling family, making plans for the kids... at 7:00 I was at NICU with only an overnight bag, helping get Dominic ready for his air ambulance transport. By 8:00 we were on a tin can sized plan heading to Edmonton.

Thursday morning, Roland left Saskatoon to follow us to Edmonton after finishing up all of the paperwork and other errands we needed to complete in Saskatoon.

So now we are just waiting for this surgery to happen. We were told the rush on Wednesday was because they may have been able to get him in for surgery on Thursday, but that didn't end up happening. We were told there was a possibility for Friday as well, but so far it seems that everyone figures that it will probably be on Monday, his 10 day birthday.

Yup, now it's just the waiting game, but we really are taking things one day at a time. So much changes day to day and it's rarely ever predictable.