Life Lessons

Good things I learned while we were in the hospital:

• I’m capable of sleeping on half of a hospital bed.  Not half long-way of a hospital bed, but as in the bottom, 3’x3’ part of the hospital bed.  What we don’t do for our kids.
• Those isolation gowns they have to wear when your kid is on droplet precautions?  They cost $7-$8 a piece.  I’d estimate that we went through about 200 (no exaggeration here, folks…)  I don’t know whether to be proud that we got our money’s worth or sad that I didn’t get that money…
• A Netflix subscription is glorious when you’re stuck in a dark room while your kid sleeps.  It’s particularly nice when you have a tablet to play on at the same time. 
• I really wish we had the tablet when Piper was in the NICU.
• Partially deflated Mylar balloons will re-inflate in the morning sun coming through a window.  I really like that sound.
• Long hospital stays are good for making you enjoy the little things.  Either that or your mental status is teetering on the brink of despair, causing you to enjoy things like the crinkling sound of a Mylar balloon re-inflating in the morning sun…
• Always, always order snacks for your kids- making sure to get things you’ll eat if they don’t want it.  I didn’t figure this out until the last day; I could have gotten a lot of bags of baked Lay’s…
• Nearly the only good thing about your child being on isolation is that the Man With the Book Cart lets you KEEP his books- at least when you’re in the PICU.  Piper’s book collection grew by about a dozen while we were there.
• TLC, the cable channel, is not good for my judgmental side (we don’t do cable- this is a whole new world for me...)  My Gypsy Wedding?  Toddlers and Tiaras???  Honey Boo Boo???  Can someone say “Butter Sketti”??? 
• Six pair of clean socks do not make up for a missing clean shirt.
• Hospital staff is very good at paying close attention to every detail of your child- and somehow, at least seemingly, miss the fact that you’ve worn the same clothes two days in a row.  Either that, or they’re really good at pretending not to notice.  I’ll take it.
• Morning rounds are a LOT like they are in Gray’s Anatomy.  I had to keep myself from laughing when a resident got grilled by the attending.  …and it made me wonder what the attending’s nickname was.  I kinda really want to know…
• Kid having trouble sleeping at night?  Have no fear- they’ll figure out a way to entertain themselves.  Going on rides up and down, back and forth, on the bed is great fun.  As was the Mysterious Dancing, Glowing Foot…