NICU....Day 24

We are now in Day 24 of the NICU....and our sweet little boy has just hit 3 lbs!! YAY!!! We are thrilled by this progress as every single ounce is a milestone!! In Brant's case it is one step closer to going home each time he gains weight. He is such a little fighter!! :)

Some folks have asked me how I know that I am doing better after 3 1/2 weeks in the NICU. My only answer is that I cry a lot less...so I have to be doing better! HA! :) Those dang pregnancy hormones combined with NICU life and recovering from a c-section will get you every time! :)

Seriously though...it is so neat to see Brant take 8 bottles per day and do really well with them. It is a blessing to be off the feeding tube, and so cool to see him on "volume as tolerated" now. :) That pretty much means that he has to take a minimum of one ounce per feeding but he can take as much as he wants. So they give us a bottle full of 2 ounces (1/2 breastmilk and 1/2 preemie formula), and he just gets to eat to his hearts desire. LOVE IT!!

Some of my friends have also asked me what the hardest part of being in the NICU is, and outside of the obvious answers of it is exhausting, I am not a fan of living at the hospital, and my baby is not home with me...I have two others that come to mind. Two of the hardest things about the NICU for me are:

1) Watching babies around us get discharged each week. Babies come and babies go...and it is just so hard for me to see them go home. As happy as I am for those parents (b.c a lot of them we have gotten to know), it just reminds you that you are not going home yet...and you will be up here again tomorrow.

2) It is hard to walk into the hospital near the Women's Center and see the mom in the wheelchair with the nurse, holding her baby on her lap in the carseat, and the dad loading up the car with all of the their bags and goodies from the hospital...and eventually the baby. Then of course they take pictures of the baby in the car before the ride home, just like we did with Braden. That is hard to watch. I know it gets me a little more simply b.c that is EXACTLY how I was with Braden when he was born, and I had no idea how much I was taking for granted when I had a short 2 night stay in the hospital, and then I got to bring him home. You never know until you go through something completely different. But God is good...and every day it gets easier to go up there. He gives you some kind of supernatural strength. :)

Hopefully just a few more weeks until we get to bring our little man home. HOORAY!! :) Until then, we patiently wait. :)