Highs and Lows

It's a given that with babes this young in the NICU that there are going to be highs and lows. Some days better than others. Some days there are so many of each that your head is swimming and you are happy and sad at the same time or from one minute or hour to the next.

The babies were baptized today. I almost cried (and so did my cousin) from the power (not quite the right word) of the quick impromptu service with no frills, no dress up, just bare bones quick and dirty service. After the scare with Nora last week, I decided I didn't really want to wait. Plus, with both my cousin and her husband here who are now the God parents to all of my children it made sense. When I left the house this morning, I didn't know today would be the day and just wanted to get it scheduled. It was hectic getting it organized while at the hospital when I'm not supposed to use the cell while in the room with the babies. But, it got done and I'm glad. One less thing to worry about. CC and Max looked in from a window. The window was from a special room and Max thought a doctor was coming for him and cried most of the time. Oh well. They had already left the house and were on the freeway before I remembered to call and remind them to grab the camera. Luckily from some odd (maybe divine?) reason I put in the bag this morning a disposable camera that a friend brought to the birth (or bought in the gift store while at the hospital) thinking I would leave it there to take random shots. So, we have pictures, but only a few and they will need to be developed. Due to logisits, we don't have pics of the ceromony. Just a few after with the priest.

My breast milk was given the free and clear for consumption again. I'm so happy about that on so many levels. I can't even tell you how much I have frozen that I would have dumped if I had to, but it would have pained me. Plus, it feels like there is so little I can do for these babies of mine right now other than providing them my milk and I'm so glad that it didn't harm either of them in any way.

Nora is once again oxygen free. She's doing great, but still tired and trying to recover from her recent illness. We are only going to nipple her once a day (hopefully when I am there) to see how she does until she regains her strength. She is very stable (few destats, no apnea or brady's to speak), just tuckered.

Ray had fewer brady's today, but lots of self resolved dsats. He's holding his own on the full bottle feeding, but also very tired and tuckered out.

The hospital got another baby with MRSA (transfered from another hospital) that needs to be in the ECMO room so Nora was moved to there (right before the baptism) so that a shared nurse could be used. We have now been in every single NICU nursery in the hospital. Not only does this mean Ray and Nora are in separate rooms, but that once again I can't go back and forth between them. I almost cried when I heard this. The nurse was insisting I would be able to go back and forth, but I knew better and I was right. I understand the logic and rational behind it all, just don't personally like it much. I'm just hoping Ray is home soon so it becomes a non-issue. It's almost like a double whammy right now because I'm going to have limited time at the hospital for the next 5 days (baby shower tomorrow and cousin and husband to Vegas for a long weekend to celebrate 20 years together).

I'm sure there is more, but I'm tired and those are the biggies off the top of my head which felt like it was spinning most of the day.