Day 29

Today marks "4 weeks of life" for Brynn using NICU terminology. I'm a little shocked that it's been that long already. When you think about a "normal" birth, we would be getting past the most difficult sleeplessness already. I even asked the nurse once if we'd be taking home a baby that is like a newborn in terms of sleeping or if she'd be more like a 1-2 month old. She said to expect the newborn sleeper. Ahhh...so there really are no advantages to a 2-3 month stay in the NICU!

Brynn had a relatively good day today. While being held by Blaine this afternoon, she spit-up pretty big which is one of the signs they look at to determine if she's tolerating food well. She also had difficulty with drops in her oxygen saturation while I was holding her. I ended up having to put her back in her isolette fairly early, and the nurse recommended that we forgo holding her anymore for the evening so that she could rest. I called her night shift nurse just minutes ago and she reported that her oxygen saturation has been good since around 5:00 PM. We'll just hope that it was a meaningless blip for her rather than a precursor to some problem. The best news is that she weighed in last night at 2 lbs 11 oz!

Riley is heading off tomorrow for a 5 day visit at Gram and Pop's house (my parents for those of you who don't know). I'm sure I'll end up missing her, but it will be great to be able to spend some more evening time at the hospital. Blaine and I will also be able to go visit together which is something we haven't managed since he started back at work last Wednesday.

Well, I'm off to pump. I have developed a love/hate relationship with the breastpump I am literally tied to every 2-3 hours. On the love side, it is the one thing I feel like I can do as a mother right now to help Brynn. On the hate side....well, it does make me feel a bit like a dairy cow. To make matters worse, I've always had problems with low milk supply so I've been having to take medication to try to improve my "milk production" (again, the dairy cow reference comes to mind). So the good news during the 5 days she was not eating was that I was able to actually get ahead in freezing milk for the first time ever. They even have a breastfeeding room with 5 or 6 pumps and privacy curtains in the NICU that is starting to feel like my second home. I've had several strange conversations with other women while we're both sequestered behind a curtain with our pumps whirring away. The conversations usually feel a little uncomfortable...kind of like talking to another person while you're both using the restroom.

We are crossing our fingers that we'll get Sandi, one of our favorite nurses, back from the weekend tomorrow. Hope you all had a restful weekend!