NICU Day 77 ~ (February 22nd)

Noelle continued to settle back into "home" today and did extremely well.  I expected it to take a few days to get her back into the routine she had before we transferred, but she is already cruising along and even took her entire bottle tonight (three hours worth of food).  The most she has ever taken (the morning of the day we transferred) was about two hours worth, so for her first bottle in more than a week to be the full amount was pretty exciting to us.  Oh, and I cannot believe I forgot to mention this yesterday, but she is now in NIC 2!!!  We'll be here for a while, but we are one giant step closer to bringing her home with us, and that time is becoming more and more real as each day passes.  We had a great time holding her and loving on her tonight.  This is what she seems to do lately whenever we get ready to leave at night...she pops her eyes wide open (and of course then we can't leave)!! 

She is perfectly content to just look around, lie there peacefully, and listen to us read stories or sing to her on her recorder.  I think she is really enjoying not being poked for a blood sugar every few hours!!  Tonight she will be getting the royal treatment with a "spa" bath, so she should sleep really well after that.  Thank you so much for continuing to pray for our sweet little girl.  We look forward to sharing more "fun" times with her!!

NICU Day 58 ~ (February 3rd)

Noelle had a great day today overall, and she has maintained her weight the last two days (no gain or loss).  She is still experiencing the acid reflux, but they were still able to wean her oxygen flow again today and she handled it well.  She is doing so well that the nurses are already starting to estimate how much longer she will be in NIC 1.  There are two sides to our NICU.  NIC 1 has the more critical babies (where we have been the past 8 weeks), and NIC 2 is babies that are stable and much closer to going home.  The "graduation" to NIC 2 is significant to parents because of everything it represents, and it is exciting and a little scary all at the same time to think that that day is quickly approaching.  All of the nurses rotate both sides, but some nurses can work weeks on one side before working the other side again.  I must admit, that I am a little (okay, VERY MUCH) attached to our little space that we occupy in NIC 1 and the nurses that we have on a consistent basis.  Some weeks, the care changes daily, and other weeks you will get the same nurse for days in a row or nights in a row.  I like that part.  I enjoy getting to know and build relationships with nurses that are consistently taking care of her.  However, that said, we have never had a bad experience with even one of the nurses in the NICU.  We definitely are much closer to certain ones and have gotten to know them really well, but even the ones that we don't know as well have been really good with her.  We have no complaints.  And so, when the time comes to say "good bye" to our little space in NIC 1, it will be exciting and bittersweet all at the same time.  Even I think that is a little strange to say, but when your life is lived in the NICU, nothing is quite "normal."  I know that we will meet more new nurses on the other side and develop relationships with them too, and I hope that some of the nurses we have now will rotate into NIC 2 more often once we are there.  Words just cannot express the thankfulness in our hearts for these precious people ~ people who do not view this as their "job."  It is their passion; and when they care for your baby, it is from their heart.  I could never say enough about them or to them in thankfulness for their service to our family.  And so, we start mentally preparing for the day that we show up to the NICU, and the front desk informs us that we have "graduated."  It will be a giant step closer to coming home.