And We're Home!

We did it. Over 7.5 hours in the car on Friday just me and the kids to Houston and then 7.5 hours back today. As it seems to be the case, babies have crazy timing with when they decide they can't sleep due to teething or runny noses or whatever. Last night or I guess this morning at 2 am Elise woke up screaming. I tried so many different things. I put her on my chest, I laid her beside me, I patted her bottom, I rocked her, I put saline drops in her nose, I nursed her. There were a few times she seemed to drift off to sleep but would wake up flailing around again. I found the Children's Tylenol in my diaper bag and it was empty. So finally at almost 4 in the morning after 2 hours of frustration I packed Elise up, left Carter in bed with my mom, and headed out to find somewhere that sold Tylenol and was open. First we tried the gas station right around the corner, but no such luck. Then we drove to a Super Wal-Mart which appeared to be open but when I walked up to the doors the worker standing next to them told me they were closed. Then he gave me directions to one he was pretty sure was open. I was so appreciative but couldn't help but cry as I walked back to the car. I was so tired. Of course, on the way to the second Wal-Mart Elise fell asleep in the car but I knew if I didn't get the Tylenol she would just wake up and scream when we got back. So we picked up the Tylenol, I dosed her up, and we headed back to the hotel. Finally at 5:00 am she was back to sleep in the Pack N Play and I was able to go back to sleep. Thankfully my mom got up with Carter at 7:00 and took him to breakfast and then let him play in the bathtub so Elise and I could sleep. I don't think I could have made the almost 8 hour drive home had she not done that!

Little stinker!

I am also thankful that Jeremy's accident has given me a bit of a different perspective on life. I feel like I've always been a pretty optimistic person, but going through what we did with Jeremy has made me more appreciative for the things we take for granted so often in life. As I was driving back to the hotel with tears dried on my face and my eyes blurring from exhaustion I just kept thinking, thank God. Thank God we were up at 4 am driving around in search of Tylenol rather than driving at 4 am headed to an emergency room or an Urgent Care. It seemed silly to be upset that I was driving around looking for Tylenol because my baby was teething when at that very moment some parent was driving their child to an emergency room or an Urgent Care with something much more serious and likely life changing going on with their child. While we could argue that getting teeth is life changing because you can eat food better, it is in a good way.

So after a somewhat sleepless night we packed up and headed home this morning around 10 am. It was sad to leave. I missed Jeremy before we hit the Houston city limit sign. Maybe I missed him already because I miss the pre-TBI Jeremy. Maybe I missed him because I missed him. Whatever the case I held back tears as we drove down the highway and Carter didn't help matters by pleading with me to turn around so he could go to the hotel and visit Uncie J. But after we stopped for lunch and scored by finding a Sonic with an outdoor play area, Carter was content to be headed home. I even treated him to a lemonade in thanks to Sonic for having a play area. I had planned to make another stop about 2-3 hours from home but Elise was asleep and Carter was contentedly playing with his cars in the back so we powered on through. Carter and I came up with a few systems that worked wonderfully for us. I had snacks in the passenger seat and when he wanted one, I would toss one back into his lap. I only missed a few times which is impressive for me. I set up some toys in the back to where he could reach them so he could get them on his own. His interactive map he got from Papa and Gigi continued to be a favorite and entertained him for a long time on the way home. I was impressed when that evening he told Ty that pandas live in China.

Playing at the Sonic play area.

Our visit with Jeremy was enjoyable although each visit ended up being a bit rushed with nap and bedtime schedules. Jeremy and my parents have a meeting tomorrow to discuss Jeremy's discharge plan. They are still saying he will be leaving on March 8th, so in a week! He will then continue therapy at an outpatient facility here which most likely will not be covered by insurance. Jeremy's biggest need right now is to work on higher order cognitive thinking. His vocabulary is pretty impressive and he remembers quite a bit. They have been working on helping him organize his thinking so he can work around deficits. One thing they've been doing is having him list items within a category. They give him a minute and average is considered recalling 15-20 items. They had him list vegetables and he was only able to list 5. So it's tasks like that, helping him connect information in his head. They've been pointing out that when he lists things, he does so in alphabetical order which is a great way to organize his thinking. He's making great strides and we are so impressed with his progress! Today he got to get in the swimming pool to practice walking so he could do so with no weight on his left leg. It was neat to see!