February 2

Elsie graduated from the NBICU Room 1 to Room 2! Here's what this means and why it is significant: Room 1 is for the smallest and sickest (most sick?) babies, and each nurse in Room 1 is assigned to one baby. While Elsie is still the smallest baby in the NBICU, she is doing well enough that she doesn't need the one-on-one attention from a nurse. Room 2 is the next step, where two babies share a "room" and share a nurse, or two babies for every one nurse.

It's funny because when Clayton and I were at the hospital on Thursday night, I asked the nurse, just out of curiosity, when she thought Elsie would be moved to Room 2. She laughed and said that Elsie could be moved there any time since she was taken off the oscillator and wasn't really high risk anymore. She told us to watch the board by the front desk where the baby's names are listed by room number, and that is how we will know if she has been moved. Today, when I got to the front desk to get my ID sticker, I thought to myself how funny it would be if I didn't look at the board but then it turns out that she was moved and I didn't notice. So I turn around, look at the board, and lo and behold, she WAS moved! Ha ha ha. Good thing I looked.

PS, while typing this post so far, I have typed "Evje" twice instead of "Elsie". Oops :)

Here's some stats for ya. Elsie is up to 690 grams, which is about 1 pound 8.5 ounces. She's getting 12 ml of fortified breast milk every 3 hours. I keep telling her to hurry up and grow so that she can eat more, because our deep freeze is overflowing with milk. It's like a dairy farm around here. She is doing well on the lesser powered ventilator (I don't know what it's technically called, so I'll just keep calling it "the lesser powered ventilator"), which is designed so that she can breathe on her own while it's on, but if she gets tired, then it breathes for her. She is slowly being weaned off of this ventilator, and the respiratory therapist told me today that they might try a CPAP sometime next week, if Elsie continues to do well. Hooray! Because once her breathing tube is out and a CPAP is on, that means that Mommy and Daddy can hold their little baby.

I told Elsie today that she's a big internet sensation, and that she's practically famous. She didn't respond. Well, she was asleep, so of course she didn't respond.

Sweet Valentine/love note from Elsie's awesome cousin Riley that we taped above Elsie's bed. We taped the note, not Riley.

Signing off from Room 2, see ya later from Elsie's Mom.