Thursday, March 5th

Katelyn is diong so much better. Her face isn't as red and is looking better every day, although her skin all over is dry and her feet look sort of bloody from either being cracked or from her toenails scratching the other foot. So we'll bring her some socks tomorrow. She seems alert and content the majority of the time. She opens her eyes more of the time now but it's hard for her to stay awake. They had to move her IV to her other hand today because the other one on her left arm wasn't functioning right anymore. Her hand looks more comfortable with this new IV and splint. With the other one, I guess she tried to pull her hand out of it and her arm looked sort of bent uncomfortably. As we were discharged tonight, we went down to NICU so we could feed Katelyn, but they said they had to feed her earlier than planned (it was during a no visitation window/shift change), so we didn't get to feed her. When we saw her, she looked so sweet and peaceful under her pink blanket, but then I saw her head and instantly was just in tears. They had to move her IV, and since they already tried both arms and they didn't last long, they tried to put it in her foot, but couldn't get a vein, so they had to put it in her scalp. She looks awful with that IV coming out of her head. It just looks painful for her. It was very hard to look at her like that, but she was sleeping contently. I wanted to hold her, but since she was asleep, I didn't want to bother her. They said when they put the IV in, she was very unhappy, of course, so they fed her earlier than planned and she ate it very quickly. She was at 25CCs and the nurse gave her a little bit more. It looks like she won't be to 60CCs until Sunday, so it will atleast be sunday or so before we can take her home. :(


I actually got a good night's sleep last night...nobody coming in to take blood/temp/blood pressure, it was great. Until 7:30 when the new nurse came in and despite the fact that the sun was out and it was already lit up in the room a bit, flipped on the lights all of a sudden (which I quickly flipped right back off from my bed controls). Then I just turned on the "reading" light which is a smaller, softer light and I was thinking, "wth is wrong with this lady?" *sigh* so she did what she needed to do and left. Now that we were awake (no thanks to bright light nurse), we got up and Gordon helped me take a shower. By the time I got done, my mom was there and dad was in the room (he was working at memorial today, so he'd be popping in and out of the room as he could). I ate the french toast the nurse brought in and had some hot chocolate. Then mom and I went down to see Katelyn, while Gordon went home to take a shower, he went to pick up some paperwork from my doctor's office and take it to my school to file my insurance stuff.

When Mom and I went to see Katelyn, she looked so sweet just sleeping away and had her donated crocheted mini blanket on her (that volunteers donate to NICU for the babies). I put Madison's picture in the bassinet with Katelyn, as I had planned on doing before we even went to the hospital (I planned on having it in there for Madison to see when she would see the baby in our room). As we were holding her, the occupational therapist came by and told me it was time to eat and asked if I wanted to feed her. Of course, I was excited to feed her. They used some of my pumped milk for this morning's feeding and then when I was feeding her, they had to supplement it, about half and half with formula. She was at 10CCs (which they told me is about 1 or maybe it was 2 tablespoons). She sucked that down super fast. She was starving, I guess! They said they are going to increase her amount by 5CCs every OTHER feeding and she has to get to 60CCs (about 2 oz) before she can be dismissed from the NICU. It seems like every time I turn around there is another requirement for her to leave the NICU. It bugs me bc I want her here with me, but I also want her to get everything she needs and to be healthy as can be.

After I held her for a while, she was falling asleep, so I put her back in her bassinet and we left. Mom went home for a while and I was going to take a nap. I called Gordon to tell him not to hurry back, since I just wanted to sleep, but he was already almost there.

A while after Gordon got there, at about 1pm, we went down for him to feed her the next bottle. I was surprised to find that they had dressed her in a onesie, and she looked like a real baby (not just an NICU baby, wearing just a diaper and splayed out under the heating lamps!!! She had on a pastel striped onesie, and she was so cute, she looked like a little easter egg! lol She was nice and cozy and did not want to stay awake to eat. I think she might have dribbled half of it down her face. We had to unwrap her and make her a little less cozy so she'd stay awake. She finally ate it all and then Gordon and I held her for a while. It was 3:00 and time for me to pump, so my abdomen was hurting (from the contractions) and it was time for another pain pill, so we had to go upstairs. After we both went upstairs, and I pumped and he took it down to the NICU, we both layed down for a nap. Just then my dad came in to visit, but he saw we were resting and said he'd come back later. I woke up at 5 when mom called to tell me she was here with Madison.
I was going to go down and feed Katelyn, but when I called down to the NICU, they had just fed her. So we just figured we'd go feed her around 8 at her next feeding.

We took Madison to dinner down in the cafeteria along with Gordon and Mom, then Dad met us down there. We took my tray that they had brought to my room (from the cafeteria/nutrition dpt) down to the cafeteria so we'd all eat together. Madison was so good tonight. I feel bad for her because we have been gone from her since Tuesday morning and she's been up late since they've been visiting me every evening at the hospital. Tonight, we are going to be discharged, so mom and dad are going to keep madison overnight and take her to school in the morning, so we can get some rest now that we'll be able to sleep comfortably in our own beds. So here comes the mommy guilt already....I'm tired and haven't slept well in a few days (well, to be honest...it's been a few MONTHS!) so we really need to sleep tonight, so we can be good and rested tomorrow.