Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Even Better…


12/19/12

We haven’t dared hope that Etta would be able to be home for Christmas; we didn’t want the disappointment.  We decided that New Years would be a “safer” timeline to expect.  It is so interesting how many ups and downs babies in the NICU can have.  One of Etta’s neighbors was told she could go home in two days.  She caught a respiratory infection and had to postpone her discharge by at least 2 weeks and is still working on getting better.  Many other babies have done similar things, “crashing” right before discharge.  You just never know how things will go…

But this morning promptly at 7:45 the rounding neonatologist called me to talk about discharging Etta Thursday, December 20th, pending her completion of 24 hours of taking full feedings.  So exciting!!  So I am here at the hospital today and requested the nurses let me take full care of her for the day to make sure I am comfortable.  They just came over and offered me a room to stay here for the night...l think they like it when I do their job!  Etta has done very well today.  She has taken more than the required amount of milk for every feeding and I have some idea what it will be like to take care of a 2 week old baby.  It is 4:30 and I am about spent!  I got to change her Ostomy bag, get her dressed, feed her all feedings, change all diapers, and rock her to sleep for naps.  Although it has been a lot of work and exhausting, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Now, just to remember how grateful I am for these opportunities when we are awake most of night…I guess that’s why I’m writing this down.  

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