S Day + 3

This was my view from the car as I pulled back up to CHOP tonight after going to the hotel with Shawna's parents and our boys who made the drive out to see us for the weekend!  Pretty impressive front to the hospital but this is an overall impressive place!!  For example, just wrapping our heads around what we had done is crazy, wild, stuff in talking with some of the nurses who we've become good mates with, we've heard about the most mind-blowing stuff that some of our doctors are working on.  One doc is trying to develop an artificial placenta so that prematurely born babies could be hooked up to it to keep it "in the womb" longer....what?  I think I just found a great place for the anatomy classes from Zeeland HS can take a field trip to...Fickel, you could chaperon by yourself, right?
Well, I woke up this morning to Shawna in a great mood.  I did mention last night in the blog that I'd steer clear of the bodily function stuff but that has become such a focus of our days that I can't.  Myles has yet to be potty trained so as we celebrate Shawna's BM's, I see a golden opportunity to get Myles excited about dropping his pants to take care of his potties.  We were actually welcomed by he and Peyton with him filling his pants as they parked at the hospital so not only did we get a reminder of his smiling face and goofy-self but also his ability to clear out a room!!!  Too bad for Shawna, she can't get out of bed and avoid it while the rest of us could!!
Back to Shawna being a great mood this morning.  I asked her why she seemed so smiley and she was so pumped that she got out of bed a few times throughout the night all by herself and peed numerous times....now we just need the opposite side to cooperate which, just a few minutes ago we might have squeezed out a little nugget, although I was eating trail mix in the bathroom earlier and may have dropped a raisin in the toilet, but I'm keeping that a secret from Shawna.  I don't want to rain on her parade.
After re-reading my blog from last night, I realized I totally left out any news about the baby...oops.  Kind of the reason we're out here and I'm writing the blog.  The third child being forgotten about already!!!  We had no scans or ultrasounds today but did yesterday and everything checked out great again.  Some of Shawna's pain today, if not most of it, has been the baby moving around and bumping into the incisions which is a good sign that the baby is moving.
We did have a physical therapist come in this morning to show Shawna a few exercises to do while she is on bed rest.  We got chatting with her too, and found out she is one of maybe 5 individuals in the United States that have one thing in common, that as a college basketball junkie I thought was incredible but anyone else wouldn't care.  She did her undergrad. work a Florida Southern who won the DII Men's Basketball National Championship and then got her master's from Duke who won the D1 Men's Basketball National Championship. 
On a sadder not, we lost our favorite nurse, Jill, today.  I shouldn't have worded it like that.  She didn't die, we didn't lose her like that.  She just took her last shift before we'll be leaving or almost 12 weeks (remember 37 is the number!!).  Not that all of the nurses are phenomenal but she was great.  We just picked up a new one that we're excited about, Cecelia.  I knew she was a winner right when she told me she was from Scranton, PA., the town in which The Office t.v. is set in.  When I told her Shawna and my processional (is that the song that you walk OUT to after you get married?) at our wedding was the theme song from that show, she cracked up.  So not R.I.P Jill, but N.I.P....Nurse In Peace!!
We had two visitors earlier in the day who work at local churches and are friends of two of the pastors at our church.  Both ladies were great to have come and see us and both said their congregations are ready to help in any, way, shape, or form they can.  These people don't even know us and have never met us.  More examples of the unbelieving outpouring of sacrifice and care that people have shown to us.  Thanks Alaina and Rachel.  The more people we meet and connections we make, the better we feel about making Philly home!!
There were two real pissers that happened today.  First, the blue raspberry popsicles we'd save in the patient freezer on our floor were gone...poof.  There is a popsicle thief on our floor!!  I thought it would be easy to track them down as their mouths would be blue as you saw in Shawna's selfie from earlier in the week, yet some of that blue was from her puking that popsicle back up on me!!  So I sat in the hallway and acted like I was texting on my phone yet striking up conversation with everyone who walked by to get a closer look at their teeth and lips for any blue signs of sucking down he popsicles rightfully saved and deserved for our boys upon their arrival this evening.  Real Sherlock Holmes-type work.  My investigation came up fruitless.  I just re-read what I typed in the last paragraph and how I spent an hour of my day...yep, it's time to leave the hospital and assimilate back in to the real world!!
The second situation that really got my panties in a bunch was when I went out to get into my car to join John, Janet, Peyton, and Myles back to their hotel.  First of all, it was awesome to have them out here.  A lot of this journey has been tough and scary but our largest concern was our time spent away from our boys so to have them visit this weekend is extra special.  Thanks to John and Janet for making the 12 hour drive out with them.  I can only imagine having to listen to "Paw Patrol" on the DVD player for at least 6 hours!!  Well, John and I are driving back with the boys on Monday...who wouldn't want to be a fly on the wall in the van for that trip!!!  The blind leading the blind.

Oh, back to what really got me fired up.  So I'm at the car and in the handle of the door was this note.

Okay, so you all saw the pic from an earlier blog where someone parked so close to my car that I couldn't get in...so I had to adjust my car because of that.  I did not leave a note on that persons car because I understood we were in a parking garage where people have to park close, often times because of someone parking like an idiot next to them which was exactly my situation.  Unbelievable.  So, as I've blogged, people are truly GOOD....except for this piece of work.  He/she must not be CHOOSING JOY!  Enjoy life, person.  Must be fun getting mad at someone who HAD to park close to your car at a children's hospital.  I feel badly for their baby in that car seat. 
Well, it's been an overall great day with Shawna feeling much better and our boys and my in-laws making it safe to come and see us!  I'm getting news that the Dux were beating Swartz Creek as well, so just some extra frosting on the cake!!
We're discharged around 11 or 12 tomorrow!!! 
Thanks, again for all of your thoughts and prayers. 

CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff