Day Three

Today I had the pleasure of seeing my little Maddy twice :) (usually we only see her once because of the strict visiting hours at NICU). I wanted to take some milk up for her in the morning and got to sneak in as well (even though it was outside of the visiting hours). She was awake and looking around, although she couldn't see much because she was laying mostly on her stomach. It was cute to see her little eyes though, I don't think I've seen her with her eyes open before :) 

Maddy's still pretty stable, not much change there. They did stop feeding her orally though for now, I think they want to take it slow, just to be safe. They want to avoid intubation so they're not pushing her too fast, they're not in a hurry to take her off the machines until they know she'll do great off them, and now there are still many unknowns.

They did end up managing to get the blood from her for the genetic test, so they'll send that off and we should know the results within a week and a half or so. Everyone's pretty confident that it's DD though, I think we all would be surprised if it's not. Plus, I don't think that they have any second guesses - so if it's not DD it will be back to square one! 

I also asked the nurse today how long Maddy was. When she was born, they had other priorities than measuring her, so we didn't find out on day one and I hadn't remembered to ask again since. I knew that she'd be short because her legs are so short, but I wanted to know exactly how short she was. She's only 39cm long - which I think is pretty average for DD babies. But it explains why she's so rolly polly - she's got 8lb of weight (a bit above average for full term babies) squished into the length of an average baby born at 29 weeks gestation!!

In non-Maddy news, we had tickets to take Lana to go see Sesame Street Live, Elmo grows up. We bought them knowing it was right around my due date, but thinking that if Bernard and I couldn't go, we could give the tickets away, or have my mum take Lana to see the show instead. With all that's been going on, we thought it was important for Bernard and I to take Lana and spend some quality time with her as well. She had a great time joining in the singing and pointing out all the characters. When it was finished, she burst into tears - "More Elmo?? More Elmo??" She was not happy that it was over!! It was great to spend some time with our big girl because I think she's had a bit of a hard time with me being in the hospital, and then with Bernard and I leaving her for a few hours every day. 

Another thing - my mum is going home on Monday. She has been a great support to me over the past couple of weeks during the end of my pregnancy and the birth of Maddy. She's been great with Lana too, she's now officially better at putting her to bed than Bernard or I ;) One thing that was difficult for her (and also for me) was that because of the NICU visiting rules, she wouldn't be able to see Maddy before she left. They only allow parents, unless the baby has been there for over a month - then after that, grandparents are also allowed. I talked to the nurses though and explained the situation and they are going to allow Mum to come and visit as a special exception. I'm so thankful that Mum will be able to see Maddy before she goes home :)

I think that's all my news for today :) Keep praying for Maddy, I'm sure that this time will pass quickly and before we know it she'll be coming home with us :)