10am
Well, Tess started the day by ripping out her feeding tube that goes through her nose into her stomach. The whole thing. She was waving it around like a rattle. Then she bit the nurse (Karyn’s best friend Denise – we have the coolest team of primaries in the NICU!) while she was reinserting it. Needless to say, she’s the picture of teeny health!

Yesterday they threatened her with protein shakes, and knowing how bad those taste, she packed on 30g in one day – a whole ounce. We’re liking this progress. Based on that, we’re going to try dropping her oxygen volume again today and see if she can take it. Fingers crossed!

We’re trying out another new schedule: one of us will take the 9am-9pm and the other will take noon-3:30 (rounds-cares-kangaroo-cares). This is tough, as the 9-9 person has to go 12 HOURS without Tess, but it’s a better use of our time in terms of really enjoying her and actually getting our work done. I was clearly the morning person, and happy daddy Dave took the first afternoon. From his deliriously happy smile, I think baby days are a big win! I was pretty productive too, so so far so good.

Dave was raving about the mess. Apparently, this whole full, fortified feedings business means serious poop. Like full diaper, stinky isolette, how can something so small DO that?! Moving right into normal parenthood moments!

10pm
Kat, Spencer and family left Tess the cutest Easter hat I’ve ever seen! I can’t wait til we can try it on her. 🙂 Tess is holding her own on slightly lower oxygen AND put on weight again. Love it. She’s been fussy today, but we figure you have to be feeling decent to act crabby, right?

Gotta say, morning to night is a long wait for a new mom. Worked a lot, but looooong. Still, the idea of a whole block of time with her tomorrow sounds delicious. Woo hoo! Also, the idea of visitors coming this week and next week has us pretty excited. And we loved catching up with people today! Those of you calling/writing, thank you. It means a lot to us. So on we march.

10:30pm
I’m taking up my pen again in gratitude. Soma, you are so absurdly sweet! Dave and I got back to the house after a long day and found a care package waiting for us! Everything a NICU parent could want, from cookies to preemie clothes, lotion for our chapped arms and a sweet card. This isn’t a club I would recommend to anyone, but it’s full of the most amazing and inspirational parents I could ever wish to meet. Thank you for letting us giggle over baby clothes and sigh over your happy 2-year old! 🙂 What normalizing activities – a great reminder that at some point she’ll need to be dressed! I’ll add you to our mental list of wise and ‘beyond it’ NICU masters. It amazes me that we can reconnect with friends from ages ago from Utah!