Ava is rockin' it in the NICU world. She is a little baby doll. She is on room air. Her feeds are up to 53 mLs of breastmilk every 3 hours as of tonight. Something like 73 mLs will be considered a full feed. Until then she is supplemented with artificial nutrition through the veins. I imagine sometime early this week they will start supplementing the feeds again with high calorie formula because she really isn't gaining weight. Her little heart is just working so hard that she uses up all her calories. Today she got moved to a big girl crib...and I mean "big!" It's a crib you'd see on the other units with one and two year olds. Though it takes up a ton of space in her new corner (she was moved again-a sixth time) it provides much more space for therapy in the bed. The boppy pillow fits for tummy time. The bumbo will fit and other fun ideas. She is still on antibiotics. The 8th will be day 21. She still is being weaned from ativan and morphine. She will be discussed in clinical conference for the cardiology group on Wednesday. Maybe they will schedule surgery that day, who knows. I met her second main nurse practitioner today. Both of them seem very experienced.
On other fronts, we moved to the apartment upstairs. It is 3-4 times the size of the basement for 10 dollars more per day. They say money can't buy happiness but I can honestly say that we are much happier with more space (especially the boys). I had gone on another search for something cheaper but could not find something that didn't require a year lease, deposit and the works, or that was anywhere near the hospital. It is KEY that we stay close to the hospital, though this is the most expensive part of town, because we are constantly shuffling people between the apartment and the hospital AND Ivy still won't take a bottle so I frequently have to run home to nurse her. Also sometimes I only have an hour or so with Ava and I don't want to waste my hour in the car. In the basement apartment (475 sq ft) I slept in the living room, and any more than two people eating, we had to eat out on the patio. So it is absolutely refreshing to sleep (not to mention pump breastmilk) in my own room and to be able to feed our whole family and grandparents within steps of the dishwasher-woohoo yes a dishwasher..and garbage disposal! There is also a spiral staircase in the bedroom that goes up to a rooftop terrace that overlooks the city. It's pretty amazing.
I've found a preschool for the boys. The next closest public school provides preschool. The only thing that makes me nervous is that it is the school that buses a lot of inner city kids to it. According to my neighbor its in a "pretty rough neighborhood." So, I am going to ask if there's another school option, but if not, we'll give it a go. The school building looks brand new. The playground is pretty pathetic, but as long as there are other kids to play with, it shouldn't be a big deal for Sam and William.
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