Not big fans of St. Mark's

    It was 2:30 in the morning by the time I got settled into our new room. Clay had come to check on me, and was back down in the NICU. After a long day it didn't take long for me to pass out. The nurse woke me around 4 am and had me come down and try to nurse Ava. All the NICU nurses were full of compliments for our little girl. They kept telling me she was so beautiful, so calm and relaxed. They weren't used to seeing such healthy happy babies where they work, and she was a joy to have. It was nice to spend a few quiet minutes with her all by myself, and surrounded by all those other babies, I was feeling grateful for the healthy little girl she was.

       The next morning we got to see our pediatrician, he said she looked wonderful and there was no need for her to be in the NICU anymore, so they were sending her to our room. He told us that they had x-rays scheduled for later that day, and they were going to send in a orthopedic specialist to look at the x-rays and come talk to us about them. He told us he had never seen anything like her leg before, but recommended that whatever it is we take her to Shriner's cause they do amazing work, and have the best doctors around.

        The next 48 hours were full of family coming to see our new precious girl, and lots of rest for me. Austin was so excited to see his little sister. He got especially excited when she opened her eyes and looked at him, "Ava's looking at me!" he yelled and tried to give her a big hug.....We are still working on reminding him to be gentle. He kept asking me why my belly was gone, and made a point to tell me that " Ava's done cooking pancakes." Earlier in my pregnancy I had tried to explain to him that his baby sister was growing bigger inside mommy, and mistakenly told him she was cooking. Of course this confused him, so he went on to ask me if she was "Cooking Pancakes." That got a good laugh out of me so for the rest of my pregnancy he would tell people that "Ava's cooking pancakes," thinking he was so funny.

       As our 48 hour stay in the hospital progressed we continued to ask about the orthopedic specialist that we were supposed to see, and they kept telling us they were setting it up, he would come see us soon, probably later tonight, for sure the next morning. The morning of our last day our pediatrician came to see us and finally told us that the staff had been mis-informed. He said that the specialist no longer worked for St. Mark's but had moved to IMC. There wouldn't be any specialist coming to see us after all, and we would have to wait for answers till we could get an appointment with Shriner's Hospital.......Yeah, best news yet. He did tell us that he got a chance to look at the x-rays and from what he could see it looked more like her hip was just fine and it was her knee that was the problem,( which Clay says he could have told them that 2 days ago). But he isn't a specialist and we just need to wait to see what Shriner's says, he got us all the information we would need to get things started with them.
      So on Saturday afternoon we left the hospital with a new beautiful baby, a slightly less fat mother, no answers, and a very sour taste in our mouths from St. Mark's.