Our Family Blog: Dawson's First Week at the Hospital

I ended up taking Dawson with me to the hospital because Jen's kids were sick and Amy's mother in law now has cancer, so they were both unable to take Dawson. So I called the social worker and she got us a room at the Sheraton and got us on the list for the Ronald McDonald House.

We ate breakfast, at McDonalds or the cafeteria, then headed up to Tyler's room. Nursed and played with him for a while. Sometimes a volunteer would play with Dawson for a bit, but he usually didn't like that too much, especially if they tried to take him out of the room. I'd play with him in the playroom upstairs and go back in to feed Tyler. Then we'd go get lunch, then I'd drop off Dawson at the sibling playroom. They watch siblings for 90 minutes, twice a day. He did pretty good in there. He did better each time he was in there.

It was nice to get that time to spend with just Tyler. I'd feed him and spend some time on the mat, working on sitting up and rolling over. He still gets physical therapy, but he enjoys being out of the crib and on the floor for a while. Having Dawson in the room is stressful on all of us. Tyler can't eat in peace and quiet, he's often distracted and after a while he just starts crying and looks frustrated. He gives me the saddest looks! So I try not to have Dawson in there for too long at a time. After Dawson was done in the playroom we'd go back upstairs and we'd often go for a walk. I'd put a few toys in a wagon (they provide wagons and strollers) and Dawson would play in the wagon while Tyler is pushed in the stroller. Then I'd feed Tyler once more before we left.

After that we'd get some supper, visit Tyler once more to play a bit and feed him before heading to the hotel. We'd get to the hotel around 8-10pm, depending on how he was lasting at the hospital. If we got there earlier, we'd go swimming, we did a couple times. Dawson is really liking water now. He liked playing on his own on the steps while I stood next to him. Then he thought It'd be funny to jump off the steps at me. After that he decided to get away from me and jump off in the other direction, with that mischievious look on his face. I caught him, but let him go under a bit. That freaked him out, and he didn't do that again. Getting his face wet doesn't bother him quite as much as he used to though.

After the pool we'd go back to our room and watch TV, play with his cars, go online and update Tyler's blog while Dawson ran around the room. He had so much energy. It was often 12-1am before he went to sleep, and he only slept if I cuddled with him, unless he was really tired already. I also discovered that he's quite a roller in bed! He flops all over the place, ends up sideways and sometimes off the bed, so I had to make a wall with the pillows next to him. So he spent most of the night flopping up against the pillows and making me nervous! So much for a good night's sleep!

Thursday, Sept 3rd was our 4th Anniversary. I got a call from the Dr saying we can go home! The day before I had gotten a call from the Ronald McDonald house saying we can go there the next morning, so I had already started to pack up our stuff anyway. We took about an hour to pack and leave, and another hour at the hospital packing, getting meds and leaving. Dawson was pretty impatient, especially since we kept going to the car and leaving it again, poor boy was confused! Of course the playroom didn't open until 1pm that day and it was noon when we left, so I couldn't make use of that like I'd hoped. But I was happy to get out of there. It's such a good feeling to be heading home with everyone. :)

Dawson had fun with the pillows on his bed. He liked jumping into them and flopping down on them. There were 5 pillows per bed.