Day 2 in the NICU

Finally, I am caught up with today.

As a parent, you never know how much attention you should give to your baby in the NICU.

Sarah is hooked up to so many things that it is hard to know what hurts.
12 hours after surgery is still too soon to think she is not in pain. I know that I would not want visitors this early if someone just cut me up.

To make recovery even more difficult, Dr Leff's attempt to massage the bowel came with a price. When you spend that much time touching an infant's insides, you increase the trauma and recovery time for the infant. Sarah will have a couple of days to recoup before she even comes to some cognitive state.

(UH OH, Somebody is beeping. Not us.)

Any way, we have 3 other kids and know that this will be a 4-6 week ordeal. My wife and I decided today that I would come here in the morning and she would come about 4:00.
She will be here in about an hour.

Sarah is not responsive, so I kiss her brow every 20 minutes and whisper in her ear. If you touch her too much, she curls her knees up to her chest. I guess that is pain or discomfort. No more of that.

I think the point here, that we learned with Will, is that someone has to be here every day. But you can't neglect your other kids in the process. Sarah will be fine without us sleeping here. We will most likely be here for 10 hours a day, in shifts and see how that goes.

I am lucky enough to report to a guy who has similar experience.

Well, the beeping and blinking is for Sarah now. She needed to be suctioned and she does not like that. She tenses up and that makes her shut down. The nurse had to resuscitate her manually with a hand vent as the machine did not have enough pressure. She is back to good.

I am sure glad it is 2007.