Still together

Well, we're happy to report that Hazel and Jude are still together. The baby that was supposed to be discharged from Nursery C didn't go home, so there was no space for Hazel. We're happy for us, but I'm sure the other family was disappointed. We're hoping that we can spend many more days together.

Jude is still not really progressing. He's really struggling to gain weight, which is partly due to the respiratory obstacles he's had to overcome and is still working to overcome. He continues to have his major "dives", which makes us very nervous. He's going to be seen by an OT tomorrow, which we're excited about. She will come up with a "plan" for him for eventual feeding, visual training, muscle strength, and more.

Hazel is still growing a lot and is almost 5 and 1/2 pounds. I think she's about a full pound heavier than Jude now. She is tolerating her condensed feedings thus far and her feeding amount has been increased quite a bit over the past few days. Once the amount stops increasing, we think they'll work on condensing more to prepare her for bottle feeding. She's still in the incubator, but will hopefully be out within the next few days. The doctor just wants her to be able to focus solely on eating and not have to worry about maintaining her temp at this time.

It's been a difficult couple of days, especially for me (Heidi). Sometimes we just hit a wall where we find ourselves completely drained emotionally (and physically) and thinking about going back to the hospital one more day is almost too much to bear. (Just a wee bit of honesty about our emotional journey...)