Day Is Done, Gone The Sun

Parent, RN, Parent, RN, Parent, RN,,,, I have been so confused all day!  Feeling a little bi-polar,,, I am a parent, yet I find myself fixing pulse ox's and talking medical lingo.  After a few minutes the medical staff has asked me, "are u a nurse"?  When I said yes, they said "I knew it"!  I totally feel like I could be doing everything I am doing right now at home, round the clock tylenol and syringe feedings.  I know our first nurse was thinking the same thing.  The only hospital thing happening now is a pulse ox.  It is nice to know his vitals, but I am sure I could have done that in his room at home too.  Oh, well, here we sit until morning.

Total surgery time was just over 4 hours.  Had four procedures done by two different teams.  No anesthestic complications, woke up calmly, acted like its just another day at the U.
People watching is in full bloom.  The amish family is staying in the room next door.  I am hoping they bring me some baked goods.  I seriously saw someone wearing a santa like suit in the hallway with a hooker woman with him.  Odd !!!!  Every child and parent up here has a story.  Kids are all over the hallways with tubes and machines being strolled or pulled in wagons.  Parents are making bottles with special bottles and formula, or storing breast milk.  I am checking all of them out, first the medical equiptment to try and figure out their diagnosis or disorders, then I am thinking about the parental aspect.  Some of these parents practically live here.  Makes me so thankful for all the blessings we have been given, even the clefts.  Tyler is getting all fixed up and he is going to run and play with all the other neighborhood boys.  Some of these kids up here will never be able to do that or never even know a life outside of these hospital walls.  Thank goodness God only trusted me with clefts, anything else would have put us all over the edge. 

Little cleft boy is asleep after taking another four ounces and some tylenol.  Can I still call him my cleft kid even after he is all fixed up? 

Forever my cleft kid! 
ps, found out during shift report he actually had a full rhinoplasty, (aka, nose job!).  i hope he isn't planning on taking after michael jackson!!!