New Room, New View

After Cora came home, Lily was able to move to a window room. It's so nice! The natural light makes the room seem bigger and it lifts our spirits.

Lily has had a pretty uneventful few days. As some of you may know, premie's often have episodes where their heart rate and/or oxygen drop and they need stimulation to keep that from happening. They give caffeine to help keep the brain stimulated. Lily had her caffeine stopped earlier this week, but she started to have episodes of low heart rate and also low oxygen. So they restarted her caffeine yesterday, and she's having way less episodes now. Her nurse thought they would try taking her off again in another week. Otherwise, Lily is doing great. She's getting lots of rest and starting to gain some weight. She's up to 4lbs 6.7oz now. She had a good bath today and got to wear some of our clothes for the first time! They were waiting for her sutures to come out. The sutures that were from her chest incision from heart surgery almost 2 weeks ago came out Friday night, and her chest looks great!

Rocking the NICU like a boss

Tomorrow starts a new week and the first week of a new routine. My mom spent 2 1/2 weeks with us, and she and my dad went home today (back to Wisconsin). Figuring out a new normal with Joe at work, me at home with Rose and Cora, and trying to visit Lily in the hospital (for maybe another 4-5 months) will be tricky. I want to be at the hospital all the time, but I also want to spend time at home with Rose and Cora. As Lily's nurse said today, my heart is going to be in two places.  It's hard for me to imagine Lily being 6 months old and still being in the hospital. How can I create some sort of normal for her? A normal beginning to life where I would be feeding her, playing with her and putting her down for naps; where I would be taking pictures of her as she discovers her world around her in our house and the places we love to go.. it seems so sad sometimes to imagine her not having all of that the way it would have happened had she not been born with esophageal atresia. I know she's in great hands at the hospital, and that helps a little. I know that the staff does everything they can to help us do the normal things for her, but it's just hard.

On a happier note, Rose is being such a wonderful big sister. She loves helping me burp Cora. When Cora cries, she pats her head and she gives Cora kisses. It melts my heart. Rose also loves going to the hospital to ride the up down (elevator) to go see baby Lily :)