This is a quick post because I am exhausted.  I'm trying to journal regularly, but the need for sleep keeps getting in my way. Our life consists of eat, sleep, poop and the occasional bit of tummy time.  I have become an exclusive pumping nursing mom so I feed him and pump every time he has a feeding.  At least he is still gettiung breast milk, even if it is not from the breast.   I hope to be able to breast feed after his repair is done.  We will see how it goes.

We are spending the night at Children's Mercy tonight. I don't know when we will be going home. He started eating a little bit slower and breathing a little bit harder than he was so I called the cardiologist and they asked me to take him to the ER. He was admitted into the cardiac floor from there.

I asked if they thought I was being over-reactive or paranoid and they said no... so I feel better. We may end up having to adjust his lasix some.

For my own reference here are the signs that raised a red flag for me:

1. Home health counted 72 resps per minute
2. He was retracting at the neck and belly
3. He had gained enough weight to make home healthcare think twice, she thought it MIGHT be fluid gain
4. He started eating slower and taking more frequent breaks between sucks
5. The angel care monitor went off and it didn't seem to be a false alarm, though he quickly started moving once I poked him.

Children's Mercy is awesome.  I get to stay with him and feed him and since I am exclusively breast feeding they feed me :)  Everyone on the cardiac floor is awesome but I will need to be MUCH clearer with the ER staff when I tell them he has a heart defect.  Our cardiologist's nurse called ahead and I told everyone I talked to that he had a CHD and when I got back to an exam room they STILL weren't clear about it even though he is a patient at this hospital and his cardiologist is here.  MUST be more emphatic in the future.