Our friends David and Liberty moved to California about a year ago for a job and live about 20 minutes away from the hospital. They invited us over for dinner that first night, and let us borrow a pack & play, bathtub and bouncer for Aili. We wanted her to be as comfortable as possible, and not feel completely away from home. I thought she deserved that since she was going in for open heart surgery.
It was so nice to be able to have a nice home cooked meal and catch up with David and Liberty and see their cute, little, chubby baby West! They are so kind for taking care of us while we are here. We are very lucky to have them here, even though we miss them being in Utah valley.
The First Night
We were so exhausted and ready to get some good sleep in our hotel that first night. But that is not what happened. At 3am a very loud beep sounds out, and I realize it's Aili's oxygen concentrator, so I jump out of bed over to it. There is a big, red light on the front, not a good sign. Then the machine just shuts off. Somehow Chris is still in bed, and I tell him to turn on a light, but he is completely out of it, and has no idea what is going on. It took him a while to wake up. I don't know how he was still so asleep, the beeping woke me right up!
So after many phone calls and waiting for people to get up and get to work, we found out that the concentrator needed to be serviced. But our oxygen provider is in Utah so that doesn't really help. They were able to get a hold of a place down here that could deliver some oxygen tanks to our hotel to hold us over while Aili was still with us. We didn't get the oxygen until 8:30 that night though, and we had been awake since 3 am.
Meanwhile that day we had to go to the hospital to Aili's pre-cath visit. We also had to pack everything back up and load it in our car because we had to check out of that room to move over to the hotel that was close to the hospital. We had to be there at 11:30 to register and our appointment was at 12:00. Like usual in hospitals we did a lot of waiting. Luckily Aili just slept. We then got called back and they started with an echo. Aili was doing really really good and first, but the echo took way long (about an hour and a half), the lady went a lot slower than the last one we got. So she was getting pretty restless, and when you want a restless baby to lay, and look in a certain direction it usually doesn't work.
Then after the echo she got an EKG again. And when and already restless baby needs to have things stuck all over her chest that also doesn't work well. I held her in my arms though and she got through it. Then we went and weighed her, and they took her temperature, and we were finally done. It was about 4:00pm at this point. We were so tired and so hungry because we didn't get lunch.
We headed over to our new hotel to check in. A guy at Stanford booked it for us so that we could get the discount. Never let other people do stuff for you. It never works out. We were suppose to get a nice big king room, but we got a queen. (We are totally spoiled at home and have a king size bed.) We thought....okay maybe we can deal with a queen size bed, whatever. So we got the key and went into the room. Holy cow it was the smallest room ever. It barely fit the bed and a little chair in the corner. It was probably less than half the size of our room at the other hotel, and it was more expensive! So we were really bummed. I was more than bummed...I was exhausted, hungry, frustrated, disappointed, everything...so of course that means I started crying, and maybe yelled a little. Not my most glamorous, proud moment. Chris went and got us something to eat real quick. Like the little thing I pinned on Pinterest that says, "I'm sorry about the unkind words I spoke out of hunger." I really was sorry and I needed food bad.
After we ate and I calmed down a little we decided it was best if we went back to the other hotel. We couldn't have even fit the pack & play anywhere in that room. We just wouldn't have fit, and been comfortable. We figured since we already checked in we would have to pay for that night, but we figured in the long run we would save money since the other hotel was a lot cheaper, and we would be so much more comfortable for the 3+ weeks we had to be there. Luckily the guy at the counter was really nice when Chris told him the room was just too small, and we couldn't fit what we needed in it. So he somehow got us out of paying for that night. And we just barely called the other hotel in time to get our same room back for the rest of our stay. When we checked back into that same hotel the guy told Chris that right after we called, they had a bunch of other people call and they were totally booked! Thank heavens we called when we did!
Saturday we were lazy all morning. We were able to finally rest well with the oxygen tanks that don't beep because they are failing. Then we met up with David and Liberty again and went to a cute park just down the street from where they live. Then they were kind enough to feed us dinner again. Aili for some reason would not take a nap. Poor thing was exhausted. We took her home after dinner, gave her a bath, and the was out in seconds.
Sunday we decided to take it real easy, and not mess up Aili's schedule too much since she was being admitted to the hospital the next day. We had a lazy morning again, then went to a cute little shopping center and walked around a bit. We decided since it was mothers day we would have a nice little lunch at a nice seafood restaurant. It was delicious. It as a nice Mother's day to spend with our cute little Aili before she went into the hospital.
I love that cute little smiley face. She such a wonderful baby!
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