Thank You Thank You Thank You

Again, I want to thank all of you, and so many other people, for all of your kind words, your concern and your insert-supernatural-intervention-of-your-choice for Peeper and the two of us over the past few days - hell, over the past year since she was conceived - and even before.

It's been incredibly helpful, especially during the hospital stay, to check my email, or here or Facebook, or the Carepage and read messages of support from so many people, from family members to old friends to new virtual friends to perfect strangers.

There are a few people whom I should thank by "name" as well: Shrike's family and DoulaK for sitting with us at the hospital while Peeper was in surgery, and her mom for making a grocery trip this afternoon; A for house/dog/cat sitting; W&C for walking our dogs - and then blogging about it, complete with photos, so we could see for ourselves how well it went; E/K/S for offering to deliver dinner last night, although we ended up passing on it because we were just so exhausted and not up to it; MOMS Club, who will be providing us meals for six different nights over the next two weeks.

Also, we can't say enough good things about the people who took care of us at the hospital - our surgeon, the nurse practitioners who actually managed Peeper's post-op care (especially K, who took great care of her, spent alot of time talk with us about her condition and the plan - and is "family."), the nurses who cared for her around the clock, and the volunteers staffing the Ronald McDonald Family Room.

I also can't say enough good things about the support that we felt from the parents and families of other patients. The family room set-up on the pediatrics floor allowed families a chance to mingle, and talk and support each other.

I know we had some very relevant things to say to the family of the heart-baby (Tetrology of Fallot) who was a day behind Peeper, and in the next bed, (especially assuring them that what they were seeing with Peeper was where their son would be in 24 hours), but also the families of the preemie with RSV, whose twin brother was out in the waiting area with his parents; the three-year-old who'd had some sort of breathing issue (I never really got a good idea what was up with that) or the seventeen-year-old girl with the head trauma from an auto accident.

All radically different medical situations, but worrying about your baby is worrying about your baby - whether she's a few days old, or almost ready to move out.

After all, in what other situation would I be sitting there at 5 am, talking to an Amish (or possibly Mennonite, but I'm pretty sure Amish) woman about the wonders and benefits of breastfeeding and natural birth?

It was great to know that everytime I stepped out of the PICU for a break, someone would ask me how Peeper was doing, and would share their child's progress.

It was so exciting yesterday, when most of the kids that we'd been following so closely got "promoted" to intermediate care, and then home today.

It was like we suddenly had a whole bunch of new best friends - like camp, but with a lot more stress.

I made a point of saying all that to the family services representative who came to check on us today.

A few minutes later, she was back, asking me to help out with a video they were filming, to help raise money, through Children's Miracle Network, for a new children's hospital, with more family facilities, more private rooms, etc.

After taking a moment to put on some make-up and real clothes, I was happy to do it. I said some of those things on camera, and showed off Peeper's Carepage.

Then, they came to the room, and filmed Peeper herself, lying in my lap with her sleeper open to show her incision, being cute as could be.

Pretty cool way to end one hell of a week.