Day 2 in the NICU

On our second day in the hospital I woke up early and went straight down to the NICU because I was anxious to see how Eliza was doing.  I was very excited to see when I got there that she had been taken off CPAP during the night and was now just on oxygen!  It was so nice to be able to see more of her face and see that she was already starting to improve.  She had a feeding tube in and they told me that they were hoping to start feeding her more so that they could cut back on her IV.  They did also hear a heart murmur that morning but they told me it could be just a transitional thing that would pass quickly, but it was something else they needed to keep an eye on.

Later that day, while Drew was with her, Eliza pulled out her feeding tube (again) but they were able to put it back in through her nose, rather than her mouth, since she was off CPAP.  She still didn't like it being there but she pulled on it less, which was good.  Eliza also decided that she was ready to have some time awake that evening so we actually got to see both of her eyes open for awhile and it was great to see!  They let her start trying to nurse that evening, which was great, but she wasn't very good at staying awake.  It was hard because she would only eat for about 3-5 minutes before she would be fast asleep and we couldn't wake her up.  At that point they would supplement the rest of her feed through the feeding tube.  It was nice that she could start trying to eat because she needed to be able to do that on her own before we could go home.

It was a little hard having me in the hospital with Eliza while Drew was driving back and forth from home with the boys, but we made it work.  I loved seeing the boys and it was nice having them visit me at the hospital but I felt bad that they couldn't see Eliza.  Alden kept asking to see his sister and was very disappointed that he couldn't.  I did love it when Alden told me "I love Eliza.  Her name is beautiful and so is she."  He loved looking at the pictures on Drew and my phones!  I was so excited for when they could meet since Alden was so excited to be a big brother again.  Anders was really happy to see me in the hospital and enjoyed looking at pictures but it was hard to tell if he was excited about the baby yet since he couldn't see her in person.

At the end of the day I was optimistic in the hope that she would get to go home within a week because she seemed to be improving so quickly.  But I also didn't want to get my hopes up too much, since things can change so quickly in the NICU.

Holding Eliza without her CPAP!  

It was so nice to see her beautiful face without the CPAP mask on.

She slept very peacefully most of the day!

I love all of her hair!

This was Eliza's little corner of the NICU with all of her machines and her giant bed.

I finally got to see her with both eyes open!

Such a sweet little girl!  I just wanted to sit and watch her or hold her the whole time so it was always hard when I had to leave her for a couple hours to eat, pump or do something else.  The hardest time during the day was when I was alone in my hospital room, because it was when my emotions would seem to almost overwhelm me, but at least I was only a two minute walk away from Eliza for now and Drew was only a phone call away.

All exhausted and worn out after trying to eat!