NICU Diary Day 49

Friday, November 24, 2000

Today was nice and quiet. Mommy and Daddy came to visit this afternoon and got all of my trach care done before Grandma and Grandpa Brockhaus arrived. Mommy was holding me when they got there, and I had my eyes open for a little while. It was great having so much attention from everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa brought me a Christmas Bear rattle, a bib, and a Pooh nightgown. I hope they know they're training me to always expect goodies when the visit! They also brought presents from my Great Grandma Winters and Grandma’s friend, Pat. Great Grandma sent me a book called “Snuggles with God” and a Santa doll, and Pat sent me a stuffed Lion. She said that I deserve to have the lion because I am so courageous!

After Mommy held me, Daddy let Grandma take his turn. Grandma was VERY excited to hold me for the first time and almost didn’t give me up to Daddy! I was off of my ventilator while everyone held me, and I did really well until later in the evening. I was going for 21 hours, but I didn’t make it through the third seven-hour trial. My nurse told the doctors I needed to go back on the ventilator to rest for the evening.

Room 3 is very noisy and the nurses have decided to rename it 2A. There usually aren’t any babies on ventilators in Room 3, but today they had seven! The NICU is completely booked and everyone is being called in to work. There are needy babies everywhere, and the hospital is running out of ventilators for all of us. So, room 3 hasn’t been the quiet haven we were expecting. Hopefully things will calm down soon.

P.S. I finally got the results back from my V.C.U.G. test, and I don’t have any reflux. Hooray!