Lovingly inflated by one of her nurses 
We had some spaghetti to celebrate.
I feel like Nhatz and I live in 2 worlds – our NICU world and the real world.
Every morning we wake up in the real world – have some time with the two boys, run errands, etc. Then we go to the hospital and enter our NICU world. We’ve walked the halls and entered the door to this NICU world for about 60 days now.
Our NICU routine starts with turning in expressed milk to Sofia’s bedside nurse. We then get a key to a locker where we stash our bags. We scrub to our elbows and wear a cover gown. I wonder how much lotion a doctor or nurse has to use to keep his/her skin from drying up from all the washing that comes with the job.
We sit beside Sofia, read her her story for the day (usually from Nhatz’s Story Chimes ), touch her, talk to her and pray with her. We talk to the doctors and nurses about things like her oxygen saturation, platelet count, white blood cell count – her “metrics that matter” in my office parlance. We make it a point to be positive around her. Good thing coz we later found out our neonatologist scolds parents who bring negative vibes in the NICU! I’m thankful that Sofia has genuinely caring doctors and nurses.
There are lots of beeping sounds from the machines connected to the babies – body temperature monitors, pulse oxymeters, things that control IV infusions. I used to think a beeeep was bad – in the movies it is followed by either a flatline or some dramatic effort to revive the patient. In the NICU world the nurses just reset a button to shut up the alarm. It usually means there was a blip in the reading because of movement from the baby or the fluid being infused is about to end.
There’s also a NICU parents’ club. You don’t want to join this club but if you’ve got a baby in the NICU, hey, you’re in! Parents who get to know each other after some time, get to talking about their respective babies’ situations, and encourage each other to hang in there. When Sofia was about to be taken to the OR so the cath for her peritoneal dialysis could be put in, a mother I haven’t really spoken with mouthed “kaya niya yan” (she can deal with that).
And then we go home to the real world. The real world is full of both precious moments and mundane stuff. Right now the two boys are into Kung Fu Panda – Nhatz is Master Shifu, I’m Tigress, Yoachim is Po, Tyler is Monkey, and they have assigned Sofia as Viper.
Can’t wait to bring Sofia into our real world.
