The Countdown and the Big Break Up

I love fall. Favorite season-hands down. But fall means something different this year. On October 1st, preemie and especially micro preemie families all over the country started the dreaded week 1 of isolation. The official start of cold/flu/RSV season. We’re heading into our cocoon for the winter. Sigh. We visited the lung doctor today and he re-iterated the plan. And he said Tucker was one of the best dressed babies he had ever seen. Score.

Isolation means more intense hand washing. Tightening up the No Visitor policy (tear). Leaving the house only for doctor’s appointments. Limited trips to public places for mama and daddy. Taking mental inventory of every cough or sneeze you hear within 30 feet of you. Lysol mania. Seriously I might have lysoled my office 5 times a day last week. It makes us a little sad for sure. Normally this time of year we would be hosting our annual McCord Road Pig Pickin’ with Team Cassavecchia. We would be excited to see invitations in the mailbox to Halloween parties. I would be stocking up on candy (heavy on the Heath bars) for trick or treaters. So it makes us sad that we’re going to sit out all of those activities this year. Still getting the Heath bars though.

There’s two main reasons micro preemies are so susceptible to infections during this season. 1. A baby gets many of mom’s antibodies for fighting infection in the third trimester-being born so early robs them of those much needed immune boosting antibodies 2. A preemie baby’s lungs are still underdeveloped-the airway openings in a preemie baby’s lungs are very narrow-so when any infection shows up it clogs the already narrow airway and can give them severe respiratory distress. So we get it. We’ve already been super cautious about Tucker since he’s been home but now we have to be even more diligent. We get why we have to be on lockdown. Getting Tucker through this season will be unbelievably important for his lifelong lung health. And getting sick could be very serious for Tucker. We will absolutely do whatever it takes to keep him healthy. But it doesn’t make it less hard.

And so the countdown begins. We have 32 weeks left in isolation. Gulp. So, I perused some blogs of fellow isolation-ers to get some advice on how to survive isolation season. I found some good tips and for those preemie moms reading my blog-here are some links if you’d like some company-http://www.lifewithjack.com/2012/10/october-1st-big-day-in-preemie-land.html AND http://littlebabypierce.blogspot.com/2012/10/oct-1.html

Here’s my top 10 list of good things about isolation:

All the Halloween candy goes to. ME.
Free shipping for Zappos.com
Hulu
Online grocery shopping at Harris Teeter (only $4! AND they load you car. Just pull up and pay!)
Sweet bonding time with our new family of 3
Pinterest
Friday night cookie baking
Once a month date night
Blogging!
Flipping Out marathons

Please pray for Tucker during this time. He. Has. To. Stay. Healthy.

His doctor appointments have gone well the last two weeks. GI doctor said hopefully in the next few months we can wean him off the reflux meds. His ahem-“other appointment” went just fine. And that’s all he would like me to say about that. And today, his lung doctor gave us some great news-we can stop the caffeine! So, Tucker will only be on ONE medicine starting this weekend (his reflux med). Yay! They also downloaded his monitor data and confirmed that Tucker hasn’t had any brady or apnea events in the last 30 days. This is the longest period of time ever for no events. Thank you Lord. We (and you) prayed for this for a very long time. Add this to the infinitely long list of answered prayers. We go back to the lung doc in 30 days and they’ll download his monitor again. If we get another good report we might be on the road to a monitor free, wireless baby.

And finally. It is time. In my quest to be out of maternity jeans and into a more acceptable size, I can’t put it off any longer. I have to break up with Paula Deen. You don’t understand. We have a long standing, blissful buttery relationship and I’m devastated. But Paula and diets aren’t compatible. I have all her cookbooks. I subscribe to her magazine. I record her shows. And I happily pay the $12 for her special issue magazine at Christmas.

So like any good break-up when you torture yourself reading old love letters from your newly departed ex, I sat on Sunday, and slowly, sadly, looked at her recipe books one last time. Smiling at the Chicken Georgia recipe remembering the first time I made it. Tearing up at the Sour Cream Pound Cake that brought us so many good times. I’m hoping this is more of a Ross/Rachel break rather than a forever and ever break up. I can’t quit her cold turkey. So, I found one last recipe that I wanted to try. A Grilled Orange Honey Glazed Pork Tenderloin. We made it on Sunday. It was a big plate of awesome-ness. Link to recipe is below, if you’re interested. I may have to squeeze in one more dessert over the weekend just to make a clean break. But after that, it’s see ya Pimento Cheese Dip. Goodbye Crab Hushpuppies. And I’ll miss you, Caramel Praline Cake.

Isolation and no Paula Deen? Big. Long. Drawn Out. Sigh.

Love

Team Hucks

“It was You who set all the boundaries of the earth; You made both summer and winter.” ~Psalm 74:17