(For the next week while I'm away from the computer enjoying the wilderness that is Alaska, I'll be sharing posts that led to the miracle baby boy we call Elias. I'll be writing live again on August 1st. Until then please enjoy these glimpses into the past few years.)
April 16 2004: So much has changed over the past ten weeks. It use to be that when we arrived at the hospital the nurses would let us know what was happening with Elias and tell us what was planned for the day. Now they often ask us what the plan is for the day and I find myself less comfortable with nurses who are new to Elias because I wonder what they know. In the beginning, I was scared to touch anything without a nurse or doctor telling me I could and needed the medical folks to translate every beep, every movement. Now its Elias's seventy third night here and it's pretty wild what we have adapted to over the past couple of months.
He has a nurse tonight who I’ve never seen before and so I find myself wondering: Do you know that you don’t need to turn up the oxygen every time he stops breathing? Do you know that he likes having his hands up by his face instead of swaddled on his chest? Will you tell him how cute he is when you change his diapers in the middle of the night? All the nurses who have been with him consistently not only attend to his needs but give him some loving too and this nurse has given me no reasons to assume he won’t, but the protective mother in me is coming out the more comfortable I am with the inner workings of the NICU. I no longer feel like a spectator but believe that I can be an advocate for our son. It’s a good change.
I LOVE the baby in a basket pics! SO cute!
I hope you are having a great vacation...
Posted by: Kris H. | July 28, 2006 at 06:46 AM
I hope you are enjoying your time away. I know I am enjoying your stories. I, too, have felt that pang of leaving the kiddo with another new nurse. Luckily they all showered him with love and attention - and paid attention to our *like/don't like* notes posted by the bed.
Posted by: amy | July 28, 2006 at 02:13 PM