What a Guy

(Hey guys, Rebecca again)

I know the last few weeks have been filled with unexpected events and new transitions for Peter, and from all reports, he's handling it well. But I am certain that the reason for that is his Daddy.

Throughout the time that Kara has been in the hospital, Andrew has been committed to a daily routine that starts each day having breakfast with Peter and ends each day having dinner with him and helping put him to bed as well.

I know those two meals have anchored Peter's day and allow him to have predictable time with at least one of his parent's daily. But I also want to really express what that means for Andrew, mostly because I know Kara will want to know how amazing her husband has been through all of this.

He wakes up every morning around seven to fix and eat with Peter and then he heads off to the hospital. He spends the day at the hospital, looking over Kara, waiting to see if she'll wake up, and handling all of her daily pumping to keep up her breastmilk supply (which was an important request Kara made of Andrew before agreeing to go on the vent). Andrew leaves the hospital around four or five to come home for Peter and Danielle. He eats dinner with Peter, bathes him, puts him to bed and might have time to hold Danielle and feed her a bottle while he's there. After Peter is asleep, around 8 o'clock, Andrew returns to the hospital to spend the evening with Kara, staying until her last pumping session of the night, often at midnight or even (depending on how the day went and when the times fall) one in the morning. Then he goes home to sleep so he can do it all over again the next day.

So I wanted to share the picture of Andrew having breakfast with Peter, but I also wanted the share what that picture really means as a snapshot of his day.


Hospital update: Yesterday (Saturday), Kara showed her first real sign of coming off of this "plateau" she has been on. Her chest x-ray looked better (you could actually see part of her diaphragm and previous x-rays had shown lungs so full of fluid that they were opaque) and the oxygen level on the vent is now 40, not 55 as it has been, which basically means Kara is that much closer to breathing on her own. Andrew said today her eyes were wide open and that when the doctor came in, he seemed pleased and said that things are headed in the right direction.