Baby on the move ... UPDATED

When I spoke to the night nurse last night she said they were probably moving Emily to a new pod. I liked her room with a view but there is a lot of drama going on in her current pod with the other babies so maybe a change of scenery would be good. The view out her window is one that made me chuckle a little when I first noticed it. Through the parking lot, past the other buildings, on the other side of the freeway is the hotel James and I lived in before we moved into our house up here. We got our new start up here just yards away from where little Emily is getting her start. It was just a funny coincidence. Anyways, the drama of the other babies is pretty serious, including staph infections and pneumonia. I've said before that she shares a pod with a set of quads. The really odd thing is that I had just started reading their blog about a week before I went into labor because that's around when they were delivered. It was a link through a link that someone had requested a prayer and I don't know these people at all. Here's the link if you're interested. I keep up with what's going on with Em's roomies through this blog because it's not like I can ask the nurses! http://treverjennaeva.blogspot.com/ I suppose James will confirm the move when he stops by on his way to work this morning.

So little Miss Em is getting bigger again. She gained a whole ounce and is up to 3 lbs 14 oz. The nurse last night had not yet weighed her so I'm just hoping for more of a gain again today. They switched out her nasal cannula (oxygen tube) and put her on a smaller set-up. Her oxygen flow is still on 0.4 L/room air and they're still trying to convince her she doesn't need it but she's still convincing them she does. We tried to go without it while I was holding her but that didn't last long. She almost made it a whole day shift without a brady but had two late in the day then had two more early in the night shift. Silly girl!

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Emily was moved to a new pod overnight. James said it is much quieter and she will have to share a nurse with 3 other babies instead of just one other baby but that's OK if the other babies aren't quite as demanding as her former pod-mates. Apparently both Emily and her boyfriend across the hall were both moved out of the "quad-pod" for whatever reason so now I'm glad I have their blog listing to keep up with them. I am just happy she seems to be in a place that has much fewer alarms going off. That room she was in was SO loud. When I sit there holding her for two hours I just clench my jaw because of all the alarms. We might have about 10-15 seconds without one then the craziness starts up again and the monitors all beep for like 10 minutes straight. One of the babies in her new suite is even in an open air crib. Apparently Emily will have to reach 4 lbs before they trust her to maintain her body temperature enough to be moved into one of those. She actually lost 5 grams yesterday but is still 3 lbs 14 oz, just a little further away from 4 lbs than she was yesterday. We sure want her to gain and keep gaining but I guess a weight loss of 5 grams isn't much to worry about. Maybe she pooped a lot overnight! ;-) They tried turning her oxygen flow down again overnight but she didn't tolerate that very well so it's still at 0.4L. It's such a low puff of air but I guess she still wants it. They'll keep trying though and it's only a matter of time.

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Slow and steady wins the race. Until we bring her home we have our routine down. It's an exhausting routine but it works for us, so far. Poor Megan seems to decide on a day-to-day basis whether she likes the routine or not. She's tired and not napping well. Sometimes she'll eat and sometimes she won't. Sometimes she has fun and sometimes she is fussy. I guess that's every toddler but I think she's trying to figure out what is going on. My mom comes over every morning to help me get Megan ready since I'm not supposed to be lifting over 10 lbs. Megan weighs 26. Grammy Olga shows up around 11 every day so my mom can take me to the hospital to see Emily. Then my mom gets an extended lunch break while I'm there and Olga feeds Megan and puts her down for her nap. Then my mom comes to pick me up around 3:00 and we go home (or maybe run an errand on the way) to relieve Olga. My mom then stays with me until James is home or until Megan is done with dinner so she can help me get her out of the highchair. It's a long day for everyone. Especially James who has to wake up early to see Emily before work, then work a full day at a NEW job (he was promoted effective January 1st and Emily made her surprise birthday on his second day on the new job while he was in NY so he had to catch a flight home and he took the rest of the week off). Poor James is so stressed about that (new job, new boss, new business) and us. He gets home at night, usually not until around 7, and we try to eat dinner, play with Megan, then he has to do her bath and get her ready for bed (though that's always been his job for some reason). He doesn't get a minute to relax until about 8:40 pm. Then it's time to do dishes, pay bills, maybe a load of Emily's clothes from the hospital. Never mind that I have to find time at least 8 times a day (around the clock) to pump milk for Emily. That's 20 minutes in the chair plus the time it takes to set up and clean up and store everything. The worst part of the whole thing is that we are absolutely exhausted like any new parent would be but our baby isn't at home with us.

The big appointment with my OB is today. She kind of told me why this happened before I was discharged from the hospital so I was still dazed. I am anxious to talk to her today to get the whole story. On top of that, it will be good to get off her terror watch list. I'm still an emotional mess but I'm functioning pretty well, considering. Though I guess a prescription for some happy pills might not be a bad idea ... I'm almost out of Vicodin after all ...