Rosie Posie

Natalie had a phenomenal day yesterday (Friday). There is not much I can say. Her numbers stayed level the entire time other than at the end of her feedings where they would have little dips which is really no big deal. We did kangaroo care for over 3 hours and she was put back since she was out so long, not because she was having heart rate / breathing issues which is the normal case. I mean there is literally no updates there. They did not really change anything of her situation yesterday, feedings stayed the same and they kept the same level of NAVA (they have been slowly decreasing it until she does not need it). I think the fact that nothing changed was a large part of how well she did, she had a break from her environment changing which does not happen often.

She has such a little personality, I cannot get over it. Maybe it was naive of me to think she wouldn't at how young and underdeveloped she is, but I was very wrong. She seems to have a sweet disposition and the nurses tend to fall for her. At the same time, she is very determined to get her wires and CPAP mask off of her and she actively works at removing them. She is not strong enough yet, but the nurses say it is only a matter of time. Her resolve is quite impressive.

Today she had an average day. Her numbers were good, but not as solidly stable as yesterday. She had a new nurse today who greeted me with: "Oh I have never worked with her, but everyone knows Natalie. A 24-weeker who never got incubated? She's famous. That would be impressive even with a 25-weeker." So I really can't complain because she had a good day instead of an incredible one.

Her roommate she has had for the past few days got discharged today. This is the first time I have seen one of the babies discharged and I totally listened in on the process. I turned to Jimmy and asked how many babies do you think we will watch being discharged from our side of the room before we leave. It is our version of gallows humor. "Gallows humor" sounds sort of dark, but you know what I mean. I really liked this little family we shared our room with and totally created my own version of what their life is like in my head, but instead of being jealous of them excitedly buckling up their very healthy newborn and going home, I found myself being genuinely happy for them and wishing the best for them (I guess I am not as petty as I thought).

Otherwise, everything is just moving along. Natalie will not have any big tests for awhile because they need to be 30-32 weeks for a lot of them (and she just hit 27 weeks). It looks like she will go off the NAVA next week. She was not on it to begin with and it really is just a little bit of an assist when she forgets to breathe, but I am a little nervous about that. It is crazy to be too concerned considering how closely they watch her, but I can't help it.

For Jimmy and myself we have made a huge effort in the past couple of days to be more cautious of our timing. A few days in a row this week were just too long and I was bringing myself to the brink of exhaustion which is unnecessary, but it is easy to do if we are not careful. We made sure to leave at a decent time yesterday night and actually got around to tidying up some of our house (I can actually see my dining room table again!) And today we made our hours of when we would be there and really stuck to them. During the week we were just coming home and crashing, but as I reminded Jimmy, there is no "weekend" where we can get everything done, so we really need to make time at night to accomplish things or our house/life will get out of control. We are not 100% better, but we are making a conscience effort.

Tonight we had a 6 oclock date to see the Spongebob movie with my (almost) 5 year old nephew and some family. It was a fun 90 minutes of decompression and listening to that little boy cackle uncontrollably was an amazing balm.

So, here's to another great couple of days, and hoping for many more!

And of course, your daily dose of Natalie Rose:

And a bonus, Natalie's cousin Scott enjoying the finest Hollywood has to offer (he has a spider painted on his face from an event he went to earlier today):