What a week, part 2

This post is the continuation of the last one. If you haven't read that one, go do it now, and then come back here, otherwise this will make no sense.

Okay, when we last left our valiant heroes, they were just about to take matters into their own hands. On with the story.

What Steph and I lost perspective of in all of this is that Theo is still our child. At the end of the day, we still have the legal right to do whatever the heck we want with regard to his care. So no matter what the doctors say, we still have the right to check him out of the hosptial at any time. Now, this isn't always a good idea, but it has started to cross our minds, that's for sure.

But here's the dilemma, and it's one that may sound like what I talked about in an earlier post: at what point does your own common sense as a parent outweigh the demands of a doctor? We can tell from interacting with Theo (as we've basically lived at the hospital these past few days) that he eats well, is very alert, and is generally a healthy baby. In fact, he's so spunky that he's pulled his own feeding tube out on two separate occasions. The guy is, in all respects, a healthy boy. And yet, the doctor wants him to stay in the hospital until he can fulfill this ridiculous schedule that he's been set up on. Steph and I are starting to feel like we're force-feeding him because, well, he must eat every three hours, and he must finish within half an hour. But those of you who are parents likely know that babies make their own schedules. Theo's seems to be that he likes to eat more during the day and less at night. Is there anything wrong with that?

Apparently, yes. After talking it over and then consulting two other doctors about it, we decided that it was time for us to take the step of checking Theo out against doctor's recommendations. This, apparently, is not an easy thing to do, but if it must be done, it must be done.

We decided, though, that we'd give it one more go with the pediatrician, just in case we could plead our case well enough that he would be discharged. However, even Steph's powers of persuasion weren't enough to conquer the doctor's objections. But when we told him that we were just going to take him home anyway, that's when things started to go our way.

Man, where the heck is this story going? I mean, back story is interesting and all, but this is starting to feel like a French art-house film. Let's get to the action part.

The long and short of it is that we reached a compromise: we got re-admitted into the hospital and we're going to stay in one of the rooms tonight with Theo (finally out of the nursery and in our room!). Overnight, Steph will feed him basically on-demand to see how things progress. If in the morning he's gained weight, we'll probably be able to bring him home during the day tomorrow (which is good because our weekly parking pass expires tonight at midnight). However, if he doesn't gain weight, the pediatrician wants to keep him in another night.

Yes, friends, this is getting ridiculous (as is the length of this post). But we're just praying that Theo will show them all who's boss and gain weight on the schedule that we think he wants to be on. So that's what I'm going to ask you all to do as well. Please pray that he'll eat well, that he'll gain weight, and most of all that he'll find favour with the pediatrician. Steph and I don't want to "burn our bridges", but at the same time, we want this whole crazy ordeal to be over finally.

Thanks for keeping with us through all this. To those of you who have taken the time to send emails, we're sorry that we haven't been able to respond. When Theo finally does come home, we're going to tackle that stack and get back to each of you individually. If anyone else wants to send an email, it's . Check in tomorrow at some point for another update.