500 Lb Gorilla in the Room

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was very nice after all, after we got Landon home. He is full of his usual vim and vigor, chattering away, excited by life and glad to be home.  We have a new nickname for him: "Typhoid Landon"... Me, Norm and M all got his virus, and it's tenacious... No wonder he was so ill.

Well, having spent a bit of time in close quarters with the other grandparents, some things were re-assuring, such as his "mee-maw's" sweetness to him. Some things were concerning, some things confirmed, and most things status quo.  The weirdest thing of all to me is this: We are all gathered in a room, caring and worrying about this sweet child that we are responsible for because our children, his parents, are addicts and both are in jail ... and the fact that my daughter is 8 months pregnant, a new grandchild is on the way, was not discussed. De ja vous.

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Discharged from Hospital This Evening

It's been quite a ride... Landon was released sometime between 4-5:30pm - since it is the other grandparent's visitation time, he went home with them. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll have any other info until Friday when we get him back. I didn't even know he'd been discharged until I called at 5:30pm to see if the Dr. had been back to check on him. I had asked them to call me. They were already headed home. Kind of frustrating, that. I'll have to assume that no news is good news.

I was there until about 2pm today - we had expected him to be released this morning, but the Dr was concerned because his breathing was still a bit fast and shallow and so wanted him to stay a bit longer and said that she'd come back by later in the day to see how he was.

Landon sure was ready to go - he had had enough of hospitals! He did get a special visit from some of the Dallas Cowboys and one of the cheerleaders. It is nice that they take the time to visit the children. Landon will be proud of the pictures and autographs one day, I am sure - but at the time he was still pretty wary of anyone he didn't know that came into his hospital room.

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Update on the Little Patient

***Update Sunday: Landon isn't going home today - hopefully tomorrow - He is feeling MUCH better, but he still has to make it through the night without oxygen, and it didn't happen last night. He did get his IV disconnected - the stint is still in place, but no more IV tube to trip us up***

Thank you SO much for the thoughts and prayers.

The other grandparents stayed with him last night so that we could catch up on sleep - It's been tough, days a blur - but the toughest time has of course been had by Landon.

We spoke this morning with The other grandfather - Landon is off of oxygen, which is GREAT news - what they need to see is him going through the night without the oxygen, and then that extending through his waking hours - so far, so good. He was still on IV Fluids - but when we left last night he was drinking juice and was more himself than he's been in a few days - fiesty enough to wreak a tangled havoc on all of the tubes...

Anytime a new unknown person walked into his room yesterday. he burst into tears - certain that they were coming to "hurt" him, I guess... the only treatments that he seems to like are the breathing treatments and the "percussions" when a respitory therapist pounds on his back with a little soft cuppy thing to help break up mucous.  The first time we saw that, it was like "Holy Cow! Now they have to beat him, too!" - lol - it looks and sounds like he's getting some stout blows... but the PT took my arm and pounded it with the "precussor" and, yeah, very soft. Whew.

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Landon Is In the Hospital

Just a quick update. We took Landon to the ER last night at 9pm... he has been diagnosed with RSV... A very nasty virus I knew little about until yesterday.

He was admitted and got to ride in an ambulance to the Pediatric Unit of another Dallas Hospital at 2am.. Poor little guy. He's been poked and prodded (5-6 blown IV's) and the saddest thing of all is we just can't explain why to him. He's sleeping now, Thankfully.

Everyone is working together for Landon, I am so pleased to report. Please keep him in thoughts and prayers...

I call her an Angel

Sometimes someone else says it all so well - Here it is -

What a Junkie Mom Misses

Thanks and Bless you, Fractal Mom, for the difference you make in your granddaughters' lives

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About a Boy and his Pacy

Landon was greeted by us eagerly and was happy to see us - and his pacy. "Mean grampy" (Cheri, I think you get credit for that one - lol) wasn't there... but that wasn't the point, really - He can take it or leave it as far as we are concerned. The baby, that is. That's the thing - there are plenty of no-no's and rules and they are very important because of safety. Then there are rules that we teach by example - sharing, playing nice, no hitting, respecting others, the golden rule, etc etc... We're not going to just make them up so we can be in control - sigh.

I want to say that I got an email from Landon's paternal Aunt, K, and we talked a good while. She would like readers of this blog to know that:

"As the daughter of the "mean" grandpa, being sober my entire life, the mother of 3 beautiful boys, friend of the author of this blog, and aunt of "Baby Landon" as my boys call him, I would like to share that I have not seen a pacifier in Landon's mouth for several months. I personally only allowed my children to have a pacifier until the age of three months because I offered them the comfort they needed and refused to have to pay for the dental problems that may occur because of long term use. He is not under stress or dismay at my parents' house, in fact we spend many days as a family going to the park, shopping, playing outside, playing peek-a-boo, visiting family members in the area, watching "Winn Dixie", and many other family oriented activities. My parents are moral, ethical, CHRISTIAN, people ... We are not horrible people, just on the other side of the fence...."

I would just like to re-iterate one more time then let it rest: What he did in yanking the pacifier out of Landon's mouth and how he did it and what he said and why was wrong. It happened. It's wrong for anyone to act that way. Clearly we disagree with their family view point on pacifiers, but not "just because" ... a member of their family works in a dentist's office, so maybe, just maybe, they will take the time to read and share what American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry has to say about pacifiers.

It's not really about what we grandparents think about pacifiers.

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Babies suck sometimes...and so do adults

So far, a routine in all of our lives for over a year has been the regular meetings with the other grand-parents to exchange Landon for their visitations... every 1st 3rd and 5th weekend.  I really believe it's been harder on us than on Landon... but the last few times he's seemed a bit like "uh, wait..." - just a flicker of concern. Maybe my imagination.  In any event, we make it as easy on him as possible - we act positive and matter of fact, and all goes pretty smoothly.

Well, the last time, not so much. Landon had had a hard week, a schedule disrupted by holiday travel, new childcare arrangements, and the day before the "exchange", 3 shots on a well-baby visit. He was in a pretty good mood though, as we drove the 30 minutes to the McDonald's that is the 1/2 way point where we meet the other grand-parents.

The other grand-father walked over to the door of our van where Norm was getting him out of his car seat. Norm lifted him out and was making polite small talk, and about to hand Landon over when the other grand-father reached up and yanked Landon's pacifier violently out of his mouth and threw it into our van, with some comment about "that damned thing out of his mouth..." - I was in shock. Landon's face crumpled and he started wailing... and the other grand-father took him from Norm and walked away to his car. It took great restraint on our part not to react, which would have only made the situation harder for Landon.

I hope that Landon got over it quickly - I know that we did not. It was a senseless and cruel thing to do, and blatantly disrespectful to Landon and to us.

We had heard that they do not allow Landon to have a pacifier when he is with them - we heard third hand, of course, they have never discussed it with us... so far there have been no issues about it. But what he did really pissed me off. It wasn't too hard to imagine him telling Landon gruffly to quit acting like a baby and be a man.

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