Monday the new day

On the upside, it has been fairly direct road of progression so far. I hate the fact that I can't enjoy it more. However, if I could offer ANY advice to anyone in a similar situation, it would be watch the nurses. No, Bruce, I don't mean LIKE THAT!!! If you spend anytime in the NICU initially you sit there staring at your kid, wishing them better. After a while of watching the heaving torso from the laboured breathing and the twitching from developing systems, your eyes always gravitate to the monitors. The monitors are part of the machinery that your kid is tethered to. They show the heart rate, breathing rate, and the amount of oxygen being absorbed. It has lots of numbers, lights, and alarms. The machine is constantly reporting bad news in the early days. You can easily bring yourself to the edge by sitting and watching the machine. At times the perceived level of indifference when the machine is going off will send you up the wall. Usually the culprits are the contacts. I turns out that the kids move, and some love to tear at the wires. The bottom line is that you should be watching your kid, and only be concerned when the nurses are. I have been forgetting this rule...

Ultimately Today is a big day around here. The boy got moved into a regular "isolet". Having your kid inside the plexi glass box doesn't seem like an improvement, in fact quite the opposite. However it now means that he is stable, requiring much less attention from the nurses, and can now focus on resting. Not being around the big machines help the parents relax a little. Today, the lights are still on to

lower his billie count, so his eyes are covered and he has a small tube across his nose for the assisted breathing, but he no longer has the massive tubing from the CPAP and for one of the first times he has no hat on. He has a fair amount of hair. Mom got to hold him skin to skin today. Massive step for us all. He continues to accept very small bits of breast milk in an effort to get him transitioned off of the cocktail that is stuck in his foot or arm. Our Emma Ros

e continues to be the amazing kid she has been through out. She is finding it hard only seeing her mom a couple of times a day, but has become something of a rock star within the NICU. When she shows up and struts her way to the end of the room to see her brother, the nurses continue to make a fuss over her. She is a breath of fresh air. At home,

she is less comfortable with just dad and Uncle Mike all day. She sticks to dad like glue and is very upset if he is out of sight. Work is an impossibility.