Day 22

Brynn's nurse met us today with the news that "she's looking much better." Nothing like a little stress relief right off the bat to set the visit off right. She was cuddled into her isolette on her tummy so cutely that we even hated to disturb her. She is generally kept in the dark so that her immature eyes can be minimally exposed to light. So we usually take turns lifting up the cover on her isolette and taking peeks at her.
Over the past few weeks, we've settled into a routine of visiting Brynn after dropping Riley at preschool in the morning, eating lunch, and then going back to the hospital for a longer visit to hold her in the afternoons. Per her doctor's orders, we are prescribed "cuddle care" (which means holding her skin-to-skin) up to one hour per day. Blaine and I generally trade off days getting to hold her and today was my turn.
The nurse gets Brynn out of the isolette and tries to rearrange all of the many cords coming off of Brynn before placing her on my chest. They have reclining chairs for cuddle care so that you can lean back and let the baby sleep on your chest without killing your arms. Brynn was a bit fussy today, meaning that she whimpered a bit like a puppy and squirmed around. She has a premie pacifier that she likes to suck on if you can actually manage to get it into her tiny mouth. Everyday we get a bit more comfortable with handling her. The first time they asked us to hold her, we were both terrified...would we crush her with our gigantic paws? would she stop breathing? would we? But I have since had the courage to change a few diapers (which are the size of a deck of cards) and take her temperature for one nurse. Today was a bit crowded back in our little corner of the NICU with several sets of parents visiting at the same time. Brynn's current "roomie" is a full-term 8 lb baby that looks like a giant to us.
I posted a picture that my mom took this week of the scrapbooking pages the nurses have placed on Brynn's wall beside her isolette (and I plan to post more pictures when I can figure out my new camera). I'll gush more about how much we love the staff in the NICU later, but these scrapbook pages are just one of the millions of things they do that help us feel like we do actually have a baby rather than a mysterious medical anomaly.
I almost forgot to give the daily weight update. She was 1012 grams today which was down 9 grams from yesterday and converts to 2 lbs 4 oz. We feel like we've had to fight tooth and nails for every ounce she's gained after dropping to 1 lb 12 oz in the first week. Now that she's not going to be fed for another 6 days, we were concerned that we'd lose ground (and of course, we may) but her doctor told us that she can certainly continue to gain weight on her IV feeding solution. The difference is that she won't be getting food into her stomach.
Since it's the weekend and Blaine's mom had to head back home after noon, we didn't go back for an afternoon visit so that we could stay home with Riley. Siblings are only allowed one 30 minute visit per week, but Riley still hasn't even seen Brynn because she has had a cough or runny nose consistently and we are way too paranoid about infection to take her in the NICU.
So that's the news for today. We'll cross our fingers for more good news tomorrow.