Elizabeth Graduates to the Big Room

Kate has been showing signs of impending labor. Her appetite was off yesterday morning and this morning. Kat has been taking her temp frequently as the temp tends to drop shortly before whelp begins. Kat’s also keeping an eagle eye on Kate as the temp is not always a reliable indicator. Kate’s official due date is tomorrow, so we could hear that she’s in whelp any time now. We know she is in good hands with Kat.

Bing continues to enjoy his ‘single dog’ time. One of the new things he’s developed for his cutie-boy repertoire is a new way of begging for a Mother Hubbard cookie refill of his Kong Goodie Bone. Tonight he grabbed a bone and started rooing and throwing the bone around while eagerly wagging his tail and soliciting eye contact. Yeah, you know it worked. After ‘working the crowd’ (Scott and I) for several minutes and making us both laugh (hence the shaking), he got his refill. He appeared delighted with himself and did a victory lap with the newly filled bone between his jaws.

Good corgi dogs.
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BingGoodie

Elizabeth Katherine was two weeks old yesterday, and has regained the weight she lost after delivery. She is back to 3 lbs 14 oz yeah! The time went by ridiculously fast – I’ve been home for about 10 days and we’ve settled into a routine of sorts. I had my first c-section follow up yesterday and Dr. is pleased with my progress. She reminded me to take it easy, nothing over 10 lbs, no vacuuming or anything other than light housework. Walking encouraged. She said the night sweats are normal and will probably continue through breast feeding, ick. The scar is itchy. Also had the follow up appointment to have the stent removed. That was less enjoyable but glad that suckers out of me. We’ve got the x-ray of the stent inside of me, I’ll have to see if it can be scanned, kind of cool. Dr. offered to let us take the stent home, we declined. He seemed a bit surprised we didn’t want to put it in the baby book <grin>.

Today held a couple of changes for Elizabeth Katherine. Her feeding schedule changed from every four hours to every three hours. She was also moved from the ‘small room’ in NICU where the babies are usually two to a nurse, to the ‘big room’ in NICU where the babies are three or four to a nurse. She’s still receiving an excellent level of care by virtually the same nurses. In fact her nurse tonight was the very nurse that cared for her in the first hours after her delivery. The nurse not only remembered Elizabeth Katherine and Scott from those first few hours, she remembered details of my problems and commented on how well I looked. She also exclaimed at how much Elizabeth Katherine has grown. So while we’ll miss the intimacy of the ‘small room’ we have no concerns that the care will be anything less than extraordinary.

We arrived at NICU just before the nursing staff was going to move Elizabeth Katherine, so we could not hold her right away. Instead we stood at her incubator singing and talking to her, and just touching her. Her eyes were open and she was very alert. She started fussing a bit in the incubator but settled when I sang to her. I’ll have to pick up some more appropriate songs for when she develops a vocabulary – Child ballads and murderous pirates might be too bloody for her as a toddler <grin>. She seems to like Stan Rogers a lot, and ‘Field of Oats’ by The Corries.

It is startling to see how tiny she is when our hands are beside her in contrast. Scott’s hand could easily cradle her back and body, while my hand appears enormous next to her head. Her ear has a tiny fold in the top curve that I find myself wondering whether it will remain as she grows older. I noticed this evening that she doesn’t have eyebrows, and that her hair color has changed again – I can’t decide if she’s fair or dark. I recognize hair and eye color change from the newborn colors – fun to speculate, though. I hope she enjoys something closer to average height – 4’11” isn’t any more convenient than Scott’s 6’2″ when it comes to cars and clothing <grin>.

After her incubator was moved to the ‘big room’ Scott did Kangaroo Care with Elizabeth Katherine while I worked on letters. Okay, I sort of worked on letters and mostly gazed fondly at my family. Elizabeth Katherine snuggled into Scott’s chest and I listened to her soft contented little sounds between Scott’s hushed whispers. I was proud of how easily Scott soothed her when she started fussing towards the end. She was stretching and wriggling and getting set for a nice satisfying bawl, Scott dropped his voice and crooned and stroked and she settled very quickly. It was lovely to see, and a good omen for our future.