Amanda learns to sleep

It's 10am and I haven't slept much. I walk into Yang's apartment. Amanda is sitting on the coach having just finished a bottle of milk. Yang's mom, who treats Amanda like her own grandaughter, beams at me that Amanda is drinking milk. Add a little sugar to it, she says, and baby will drink it. She adds that Amanda won't drink the milk Sabrina and I give her because it doesn't have sugar in it. I tell her that's not true. That Amanda drinks it just fine. It doesn't discourage her from repeating the successful sugar milk story two more times.

I'm picking up Amanda to take her to see Sabrina, who is in the hospital. It is the first time Sabrina and Amanda have been apart. The original plan was Sabrina was to have a 3-4 hour procedure and then spend 1-2 nights in the hospital. I would take Amanda and Kobe back to our apartment at night. Then the procedure turned into 12.5 hours and I spent the night in the hospital room with Sabrina. She's fine, but the 1-2 night stay turned into three nights.

After the second night, I reunited mother and child at the hospital, which is only a five minute walk from Yang's apartment. I moved between Yang's apartment and the hospital until 8pm when I returned to our apartment. I left Amanda at Yang's apartment, my justification was she was already used to the Grandmother's housekeeper who used to the be the elder kids nanny. Truth was I was exhausted.

My exhaustion was maybe driven by emotions or boredom or lack of sleep. On the day of Sabrina's procedure, we got up at 5am to settle Amanda and Kobe at Yang's apartment before Sabrina checked into the hospital at 7am. At 8:30am, they wheeled Sabrina away for the 3-4 hour procedure. I was able to stay in the hospital room. I paced back in forth. Tried to nap. Tried to read. Checked to status of the LA fires. At 1pm, Sabrina wasn't back to the room and I thought maybe it took a little longer or she needed time for anesthesia to wear off. Me being me, didn't ask for an update until 4:30pm when I went to the nurses station. The nurse made a few calls and told me the procedure was halfway done. "What?" I asked. She said everything was "ok" and just taking longer than expected. An hour or so later, the floor doctor who was there when Sabrina checked into the hospital came to the room and said "don't worry, it's almost done and going ok". The "don't worry" part got me worried. I didn't hear anything for a while, until the floor doctor came back at 8pm and told me "just finishing up". And he grabbed both my hands in an awkward shake.

At 9pm, a nurse came in and asked if I spoke Chinese. I said no. She left, and a few minutes later another nurse came and told me "Dr. Li wants to see you on the third floor of building one" and the promptly left. It took me about 10 minutes to get there - over a walkway that connects the two buildings. My mind was racing, thinking this must be bad news and I'd need to make a decision about surgery or transfering to a local hospital. What logic would I use to decide? Then as I got close, I thought it was probably just to tell me how the procedure went. And that's what it was.

When I got there, I didn't recognize Dr. Li. First, I thought Dr. Li was male. And it turns out he is. But there is also a female Dr Li we've been working with, and she was the one waiting for me. Second, she looked really exhausted. She explained to me in some detail the procedure, what they found, and why it took so long. She then went to the male Dr. Li's office to see if he wanted me to know anything. He pretty much said the same thing, just in summary form. They told me I could go back to the room and wait.

Sabrina woke up and looked around. A nurse was there. What time is is? 10pm? At night? Sabrina couldn't get her mind around this. And then she thought I might be pissed having to wait in the room that long. I wasn't pissed. I was tired and anxious and pleased that I didn't think about not having insurance. At least didn't think about it much.

Sabrina got back to the room around 11 or so and by the time everyone was settled and we could sleep it was maybe 12:30. Sabrina was alert and talkative. She tried to sleep, but could not sleep much. I tried to sleep on the layout chair, but didn't sleep much. It seems the nurses had to keep coming into the room for one thing or the other. At 6:30am, a wide awake Sabrina asked me to return to our apartment and grab a few things.

And now we are home. Amanda and Kobe napping. Sabrina recovering. It's been s stressful few days, especially for Amanda and it was a delight to see mother and child reunited.