Short(er) and sweet, just like Emma

Tonight's blog will be shorter than the last few, not because Russell's writing it, but because I'm exhausted.

Emma is now turning her head on her own when she's mad, hungry, and/or uncomfortable. Her little neck is getting pretty strong, and she's also turned on her side once. She got a Hepatitis B vaccine the other day; I wasn't there for it, but Russell said she only flinched a little and looked at the nurse like, "Is that all you've got?" No tears or even a peep. Her hands are still bruised from the numerous IV's, and one of her heels has 8 prick marks on it from IV's. She's a tough little cookie.

Today was the first day that she got fussy over anything, and my mom and I determined that it was a combination of things. One was that her hips were a good bit higher than her head after she ate, because of how the physical therapist arranged her fort. Imagine drinking on your stomach and trying to digest it laying down with your head down an incline. On top of that, she sneezes (oh my gosh, SO CUTE) after she eats because some of the formula runs into her nasal passages and irritates them. We won't know what to do with ourselves once we get her home and feed and change her right side up and on her back, respectively. We also think she is finally getting uncomfortable after being on her tummy 24 hours a day for 9 days. I have a "tummy time" toy that I'm going to put in her crib while we're there tomorrow to see if that will entertain her a little. Dr. Troup still thinks she'll go on her back tomorrow or Saturday.

Speaking of Dr. Troup, he came in wearing his funny tie-dyed lab coat to check out her head and incision. The incision still looks good, but the fluid on her brain is even higher than it was yesterday...this isn't good news. He's even more sure that she'll have to be shunted before we go home, either on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday of next week. She has to be on her back and be able to stay there comfortably before she can be shunted. He'll continue to monitor her tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm hoping for Monday or Tuesday because I just want it over with, and I don't want to just wait for the pressure to manifest itself in poor feeding, breathing, or heart rate before he does anything. But I trust Dr. Troup - he's pretty great.

I realize that the shunt surgery is a whole different procedure than what we've been dealing with, but it will still feel like we're taking backwards steps. Dr. Troup wants her out of the NICU for infection reasons (the NICU is kinda yucky because of the caliber of some of the people who visit babies in there). If we took her home and came back for the shunt, she'd go through pediatrics, not the NICU. Anyway, once she has the shunt, she'll go back to NICU I and be stuck with and fed through IV's all over again. We'll have to start the bottle feeding process all over again. Shunts can change the way babies eat, too, because they initially cause a sudden, large inflow into the abdominal cavity, pressing against the stomach and making the baby feel more full than she actually is. I pray, pray, pray that this all goes well because we've made so much progress (better and faster than a lot of myelo babies, apparently); I'd hate for this second surgery to interrupt this progess.

The nurses in NICU 2 for the last 2 days have been outstanding - now we couldn't be happier! Emma's diaper rash is better than when she first got it, but we can't quite get rid of it. The nurses are really keeping an eye on it and trying hard to get rid of it, which we appreciate.

This is Emma after a short nap following her long afternoon of squirming, whining, and crying. She looks completely comatose, and she's desperately trying to wake up to eat dinner. Once she hits 12 or 13 years old, she'll probably be mortified that I shared this picture with people, but I think it's funny. It's also pretty funny that every mother has heard and read the lectures about putting a baby in a crib with no blankets, no stuffed animals, not even a crib bumper...and here's our baby, surrounded by about 13 blankets.