Yay for the census!

The census last week in the NICU was 33. Today it is 14! That means, they are CLOSING Nursery C, which means Hazel won't be moved. All the babies who were in Nursery C have been moved back to B (it makes staffing easier). Thankfully, they'll be together for at least a little while longer (and hopefully a lot longer).

We really enjoyed the Occupational Therapist who met Jude today. Jude didn't cooperate (he slept the whole time), but she was still able to make a lot of observations about him. She said she could tell he is extremely responsive/reactive and sensitive. We have been asking the nurses for weeks about their thoughts on his grimacing red face, and they always respond that he must be trying to poop. We know this is not the case and the OT told us today that it's a response that communicates, "I've had enough. Too much stimulation. Stop" This can either be sound, touch, light, etc. She also said he's very strong. She's going to come back tomorrow and work on helping us with skin to skin since Jude has not been tolerating it lately. She thinks it may just be tough for him to transition, that the getting undressed process, being picked up by the nurse, and traveling through space is just too much for him to handle. We're going to try to minimize the transitional things and see how he does.

Hazel did great with skin to skin today (after increasing her oxygen a bit) and is still doing well with her feeds. We are very thankful for this.

Thank you for lifting us up in prayer.