Maeve, Day 2

Today was a great day and a rough day all rolled into one. Paul and I got to sleep a full 10 hours last night which was desperately needed. We ate breakfast and headed down to the NICU. We had an awesome nurse today who spent so much time with us. She let us change Maeve's diaper and take her temperature and be a little more hands on. We were there for rounds and got to talk to the three doctors who are monitoring her. Basically her breathing is still very strained and uneven, even with the CPAP in. So, they have to keep it in until she smooths out her breathing patterns. Once she is off of that (which is the blue tube you see in the pictures) she will move to just Oxygen. She cannot come home until she is off of oxygen for 24 hours. So, he said at least Wednesday, maybe as late as Friday. In addition to the breathing issues, she has not eaten by mouth since her birth so she also has to pass all of the feeding and digesting tests that won't start until she is off CPAP. I asked if I could feed her the breast milk we are pumping when it is time to feed her and they said that I can't feed her right away in case she aspirates or something goes haywire. They'll let me feed her a few hours after they know she can handle food by mouth. She'll only be fed by medicine dropper at first. So, that wasn't the most encouraging outlook. The thought of going home without her tomorrow is devastating... we live quite a hike from Christiana!

So, in the afternoon some of our relatives came to see her which was really nice. Noah got to see her again and he gets so excited, it's adorable to watch. When he's in my room he just wants to be under my arm, snuggling in my bed. We miss each other a lot.... Paul went home with him tonight to play on the swingset and have some Daddy/Son time.

After everyone left I went back to the NICU to be with Maeve again. For the most part she has been very fussy and restless. She hates all of the cords and sometimes even touching her sets her screaming. The nurses say she is a little wild woman. There is a nurse who has always been very compassionate and she saw me coming and asked if wanted to hold her. I nearly jumped out of my skin, I was so excited. She carefully wrapped her up, keeping all of her cords untangled and plugged in and handed her to me. She instantly calmed down... there wasn't an ounce of anxiety in her as there has been since she has been in the NICU. It was absolutely heavenly to hold her. The nurses couldn't believe it was the same baby because she was soooo calm and peaceful. I just held her so tight and sang her all of the songs I sing to Noah every night and held her hands. I rocked her for over an hour but I was starting to fall asleep and they said that was a bit dangerous for me to hold her sleepy so I put her back in her bassinet and prayed for her and came back upstairs.

I have my discharge papers for the morning which stinks. The nurse told me that even though my papers say first thing Monday morning the insurance company will allow me to stay in my room until 11pm tomorrow night if my baby is in the NICU, so I am going to try to hang out here as long as I can.

Just to let you all know.... we LOVE all of the comments, posts, phone calls, etc. They really truly help. But, we cannot have phones in the NICU and unless family has been here we have pretty much been in the NICU. So, please don't take offense if we don't call you back. Text messages are easiest because we can respond quickly. Even if we can't respond, we still really like the calls, messages, and emails.... I am pretty sure that no visitors are allowed in the NICU other than family which means we won't be up for too many guests this week. There will be plenty of time for visits once we are all home and settled....

So, that's the story of the day.

Happy Father's Day to my awesome husband who is so loving and caring and wonderful. Paul's patience and giving spirit are always so inspiring.
Happy Father's Day to my awesome dad who has always loved me and my family with more love than I knew one person could contain.

Maeve, Noah and I are pretty darn lucky, huh?