Lovely Day

We had a great afternoon and evening with the boys.

James had a new nurse today. We're usually a little disappointed when we find out that it's not one of "the regulars", but the new nurses are often wonderful as well, and we end up learning new things from them. Although the core of the care remains the same, everyone has their own way of doing things or certain little extras that they bring to the job. James's nurse today was great. (We figured we would like her when, during our morning phone call, she spontaneously commented on how adorable he was. What can I say, we're easy to please!) When we came in, she told us that she had put some lotion on James's skin where it was a little dry (apparently he's old enough for it now), and she gave him a little massage.

She swaddled him up so that I could hold him, and this was the first time I've held him in the non-kangaroo position. It was so nice to be able to look into his eyes, and he was awake and alert, looking around. (He definitely seemed to be feeling better today!) Of course, I'd only been holding him a little when the tech came in to do his renal ultrasound, and I had to put him back on his bed. (The ultrasound had been ordered yesterday, but when we arrived, it hadn't been done yet. The nurse had called to check on it, and they said they were swamped but would get to it sometime later that day. Too bad later came so soon! The ultrasound is to look at blood flow to his kidneys. They're not concerned about his kidneys per se, but this is a piece of information that will help in making the decision about whether to do the surgery to fix his heart murmur. More about that later.)

When the nurse was picking him up to put him back on the bed, she pointed to his forehead and said, "See this spot here? This is where he needs a kiss." This maybe doesn't sound like a big deal, but we haven't really been giving the boys kisses (except through their blankets), because we weren't sure if we were allowed to. That may sound silly, but for obvious reasons, there's a lot of concern about avoiding infection in the NICU. We're constantly washing our hands or using hand sanitizer, and we didn't know if a kiss would be too much exposure to germs. So getting to give my son a kiss was special.
I also got to hold Matthew for a long time. As Mike mentioned in the previous post, they gave him a diuretic because he was retaining fluid and looking a bit puffy -- yesterday he had sausage fingers! Anyhow, it must have worked, because at one point I shifted a little and felt liquid running down my belly -- he'd filled up the diaper and peed all the way through it and onto me! It was hilarious. Fortunately I was wearing a surgical gown at the time.

I also noticed when I put him back in bed that I had a baby footprint on my tummy. (My belly looks HUGE in this picture. Yes, I still have some baby weight, but not quite as much as it appears!)

Mike spent some quality time with James, keeping him comfortable during his ultrasound and talking to him. He also got to hold Mattie for quite a while. Mattie was very content with his daddy!