And then there was this...

Let's see. The weekend started out really, on Thursday. Let me rephrase that. The excitement started out on Thursday. I had to go to the Doctor about my hamartoma in my lung. Which, by the way, has not changed in 6 months (woohoo!!!!). I have to back some time in January. Anyway, on our way to the Doctor at St. Thomas, we hear on the radio that there is an overturned 18-wheeler on I-24 at 21st Ave. Guess where we have to get off...yep...21st Ave. We decide to call my wife's aunt who knows Nashville pretty well. When we tell her our scenario, she replies..."Oh No". That really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. However, she tells us where we should turn, and we do. It all starts looking very familiar. My wife makes the comment about this being the same way to go to Vanderbilt Hospital...Uhh Ohh...Her aunt says, "well isn't that where you are going?". AAGGGHHHHH!!!!! She took us to the wrong place. However, we couldn't have made it that far without her. We were able to get back on I-24 on the other side of the accident. It worked out in the end.

Also on Thursday, when I got to work I found out that the equipment I had hoped to get tested (18 Machines), hadn't even been started. We were going to be there for a while. I was told we would be there all weekend. I ended up staying that night until about 11:30. The only bad part was that I didn't get there until 2:00, so it really wasn't that bad. We ended up getting 9 done for the day (only half of what I wanted). Needless to say there was a bunch of problems. Friday wasn't much better. We had to get 20 machines done in 8 hours. We had 4 people working on the testing, and 2 (counting myself) working on getting them ready to ship. At 3:00 (quitting time) there was only 2 machines left. I decided to let everyone go home, and I would stay and get them done. Sounds easy enough. However, those 2 machines turned out to be dogs. I couldn't get anything to work right. I was starting to get frustrated. After several reboots, I got one of them to pass. The last one was terrible. I ended up calling one of the technicians in to try to fix it. He ended up replacing the whole computer. After that we were good to go. We got out of here at about 9:30 that night, only to have to come back at 6:30 in the morning.

Saturday, we came in, and started getting things ready to ship. I had 1 guy out on the floor doing inspections, while I did paperwork. Did I ever mention how much I hate paperwork? I didn't have to do much, because my boss did most of it, but I still hate it. It seems like it takes longer than the testing does. After I finished, I asked my coworker if he had done all of his inspection paperwork. Unfortunately, his answer was, "No". We were almost able to leave at 8:00, but had to stay to do more paperwork. By the time we got done, it was 10:30 (which is the time we would have gotten paid till no matter what). So we left.

I got home only to find out that my wife was going to go shopping at a near by mall. Well, I guess I already knew about it. Of course no one was ready, when I got there. I think they decided to sleep in. Anyhow, we were going to go shopping at the Children's Place to get socks and such for my daughter for school (she starts kindergarten this year :((...) We were at the mall about 2 to 3 hours before we even got to the Children's Place. Now I enjoy shopping (weird huh), but I can't spend that much time looking at pretty much the same stuff. We stayed in Dillard's for the longest. What's worse is that we have a Dillard's 5 minutes away from home, and we traveled an hour and a half to go to this one. Is it me, or is there something terribly wrong with this picture? I did find a pretty cool store though. It was called Steve and Barry's University Sportswear. They were having a liquidation sale. Everything in the store was $5.98 or less. They had everything from socks to jackets. A few of the shirts were a bit off color, but not all of them. This put us getting home pretty late. We had to stop at the In-Laws' house and then head home.

Sunday started out as your usual Sunday. We got up and got ready for church. Went to church as usual. After church we went to the grocery store to get a couple of things, and then returned home. We decided to go ahead and start lunch. It was about 1:30 or so. I was reluctant to start cooking. I guess I was just being lazy (please no comments from the Peanut Gallery). However, after much hesitation, she made me get off the couch. I cooked Breaded Pork Chops, Rice, Green Beans, and of course Macaroni and Cheese. What can I say, my daughter loves the stuff. We finally get it all cooked, when we get a phone call. My wife answers, and it was my dad. You see he and my brother had to take a trip to Nashville early that morning to take my nephew to the airport so he could fly home to Hawaii. So as you can imagine, it would have already been a pretty emotional day for them. Anyhow, He tells her that he had just passed our road. This is not out of the norm. She just thought they had just gotten back from Nashville. It's about 2:40 or so by now. Then it happens. She could tell something wasn't right. He says they are on their way to the Emergency Room. Being a little emotional at the time, when she asks what is wrong, all he can say is my nieces name. She says she is on her way. All the while I am setting the table, fixing the plates, and listening to what is going on [Multi-tasking :)]. She had heard noise in the background, but thought it was just the kids making noise. It was my niece screaming in pain.

We leave the food on the table, and head for the hospital. I mentioned in a previous post (What Happened) that she was expecting, and how that was causing some tension at the house. Well, she is 29 weeks pregnant at this time, still a bit early. We arrive at the hospital at about 2:45, and my wife runs in, while I get the kids. Yeah, unfortunately we had the 3 kids with us. Normally, I wouldn't take them to the hospital, but this time didn't have much choice. Being that my niece was pregnant, they sent her straight to OB. We got up to see her, and my wife went in. I stayed outside the room, and waited. My dad came out, and told me we were going to have the baby. I was shocked. It was way too early. I knew I wasn't going to be able to go in the room any time soon, so I took the kids to the waiting room. After being there for about 30 minutes, I got restless, and went to check on her. On my way out, I saw the baby's father. He told me, "we got a boy". My heart sank. I was happy she had him already, but I was a bit down that I didn't get to see her before hand. The doctors wouldn't open the blinds to let us look into the nursery. We tried and tried to look between the blinds, but couldn't see much. The nurse finally got done in my nieces room, and we were able to go in. My niece was doing well. She just looked tired. You really couldn't tell she had just had a baby. My wife and the baby's father were able to stay in the room the entire time. The father was a little unstable. They said he almost passed out. It's a little funny, now. But I bet he wasn't laughing at the time. As a matter of fact, he was crying. That is one of the worst feelings. I am talking about when someone you love is in pain and there is nothing you can do about it. He was fine after a while. I think he did well, especially for his first time. I guess it would have been a little bit easier for both mother and father, if she would have had any type of pain medication. She was too far along for any of that though. So let's see, we were notified at around 2:40. We arrived at 2:45, and she delivered before 3:30.

She named him Lucas Gabriel. I kinda like it. I wasn't too thrilled about Gabriel, but it has grown on me. I don't think it was totally her choice. I think she may have been pressured into it. Isn't it funny how that happens? At one time, she wanted to name him Diego. I like that. But apparently the pressure people won that battle. Lucas' Doctor came in and told us that he was doing fine. At birth, he weighed a mere 2 lbs, 15.4 oz. (you have to include that .4). He said Lucas was breathing on his own. He was covered in tubes. However, the Doctor wanted to med-flight him to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, for the simple fact that, he didn't want Lucas to be in this hospital, if his condition got worse. He wanted him to be in a better hospital, where they were better trained to deal with that kind of thing. I commend him for that. Lucas was flown to Erlanger, and his mother was released the next day.

Both parents are minors so things get a little tricky when it comes to visitation at Erlanger. First of all, 1 of the parents has to be present at all times, when there is a visitor. Since both are minors, an adult has to be present at all times as well. This means a lot of trips to Erlanger, and a lot of overnight stays. My wife and I are going to go this weekend and relieve a few of the people there. Of course, only 1 of the parents can leave.

That is what happened over the weekend, but things didn't stop there. On Monday, my niece was released. However, before she was released, they had to fill out more paperwork. This included the birth certificate. I was at work during this, but my wife was there. She actually had to call me to come in, because things were getting out of hand. One of the nurses even threatened to call security. That is crazy!!! I have to admit, I was a bit upset. I mean. Here they are having just brought a new life into the world, the mother of the child still on the hospital bed, I'm sure the father still a bit overwhelmed by all that has taken place, and they are arguing about little stupid stuff. Some people may say that a birth certificate is not little nor stupid, and I agree. However, the whole problem was caused when they were deciding what last name the baby was going to carry. My first thoughts were, "Who cares?" I really didn't think that was too important at the present time. I could see both sides of the fence on whether or not to put the father on the certificate. I could see good reasons for both parties. But I could also see bad reasons. My own personal opinion is that he should be on it. I mean. You have to ask only a couple of questions. First, is he the father? Second, is he presently trying to be a part of the child's life? If the answer to both of these is "yes", why wouldn't he be included on the certificate. You could go into, well what if he leaves, or what if it doesn't work out, or many different scenarios, but we shouldn't live in the "what if..." realm. Let's just stick with the facts!!! Luckily, by the time I arrived, everything had settled down a bit. When I got there, no one said anything to me about it. Let's move on to better things. As you can tell, I get a bit worked up about these things.

Monday, the Doctors at Erlanger decided that since Lucas wasn't using the Ventilator they had inserted, they should go ahead and remove it. So here you have a 1 day old, 2 pound baby that was born 11 weeks premature, and he is breathing on his own not once having to use a Ventilator to breathe. Is that stubborn or what!?! Things are starting to look up. But we're not done, yet. Tuesday, they decided that they would try to remove the feeding tube from his stomach, and feed him breast milk. That was a success (so far). They removed the tube, and are feeding him 1cc of his mothers milk every 3 hours. Now, we have a 2 day old, 2 pound baby that is not only breathing on his own, but also eating on his own. This is going to be one strong kid. However, he is still recovering. He still has to gain at least a pound and a half before they let him go home. The doctors tell us that he will be there at least until the mother's due date, which was Oct. 1. Please keep him in your prayers. Thanx for taking the time to read this. It only took me 3 days to write it. Hopefully the next won't be so long. Take care