My oh my, I can't believe the time is here already. Tomorrow Bryce will be staying with Miss Mary and Lil Miss Adalyn for 4 whole hours while mommy goes to work.
This will be the first time I've left Bryce alone with anyone except his father and my mother. And neither of them has had him for more than a work day.
One might say I'm a little, okay a lot, attached. But hey, he's MY baby. I share him with no one. Except now Mary and Adalyn.
Obviously I'm confident he will be in capable hands, otherwise I never would have asked Mary for "the favor," as it is now referred to. Beginning tomorrow Mary will watch Bryce on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can go
in to work, without distraction. Tomorrow is our test run, only four hours and only once this week.
And I've got her all set up with a new, full package of diapers and wipes, a new pre-made bottle of formula, a Boppy, a car seat base, an extra set of clothes, two bottles, our two favorite nipples, two pacifiers, a folder with all of the medically necessary information anyone could imagine, emergency contact numbers beyond reason, doctors' contact information and handmade, printed spreadsheets for tracking his bottles, sleep and diapers...oh and one precious baby boy.
I suspect poor Mary has no idea what she has signed up for, but boy will she when we show up with all of our necessities in tow tomorrow morning. I'm anxious to be committing myself to be away from Bryce so much in the coming weeks but sure we're doing the only thing really possible. At least on Wednesdays when I have to be away at work he'll be home with his daddy. It'll be good for us all.
And as a side note, we had the most unexpected treat today. I took Bryce to get some more formula and while I was sitting in the car feeding him I thought I saw a familiar face. Upon further inspection I was delighted to confirm that that face was Dr. Imm.
Dr. Imm was the neonatologist who rounded on Bryce the first two weeks of his life. I very much credit him with helping to save Bryce's life. This otherwise stranger has seen me in a more vulnerable and weak state than I care to recall, he's seen the worst of me as he was the very doctor that somberly informed us that Bryce's brain bleeds (IVH - intra-ventricular hemorrhages) had in fact worsened to a stage three and four. I, for some unknown reason, pride myself for not crying in front of people but Dr. Imm witnessed a breakdown like none other that morning. It is forever etched in my mind's eye.
Needless to say, I literally bounded out of the car, ran around to snatch Bryce out of his car seat and nearly trampled poor Dr. Imm and his family to show off how far Bryce has come. It was funny too because this must happen to them fairly often. His wife barely seemed surprised. Dr. Imm immediately recognized me pummeling toward him and lit up when he saw Bryce. I bragged on and on about how well Bryce is doing and he went on and on about how great Bryce's head looks.
I suspect that even when your job is saving babies lives, most often the sickest of the sick, you still remember having to tell a mother that her baby could be severely handicapped, neurologically delayed or wind up with Cerebral Palsy - and there is not a thing in the world you can do about it.
Thanks again, Dr. Imm for doing what you could about the things you could do something about. And thanks again, to everyone at Dell Children's hospital NICU for saving Bryce's life. We think of you all daily and hold a new found hope that we'll have to opportunity to run into you someday and show off how well our baby is doing.