Rise and Shine, Rise and Shine, and ... Rise and Shine!

I have spent many late nights playing video games, testing my liver and even long nights on the road. But our latest routine takes the cake. It goes a little something like this:

 We prepare to walk to down to the NICU at 10:30pm to feed Annabel at 11pm. We're allowed a whole half hour of time with her right now and then we return to the room by midnight. Then we set up the newly founded, well rounded, and HUGEly successful Montero Dairy. (I must refrain from sharing our proprietary trade secrets that detail the ultra-efficient operations of the family dairy as I’m bound to confidentiality by the production manager’s strict and loop hole free contract which is punishable by marital law in Colorado, New Mexico, and New York.) 45 minutes later we lay our heads down to rest for about an hour before the cycle begins again.

Ironically, I have been preparing my body for this lack of rest for 3 weeks. I must give thanks for my rigorous practice routine to my beautiful wife and sleeplessness coach, Mary. It seems nearly impossible to continue this insanity each time my iPhone alarm clock wakes me. But once we are with Annabel and Sophia the sleep sacrifice fades away as I see Annabel rise and shine.

This morning she was hungry once again at 5am on the dot. However, she had to wait a whole half hour! The NICU needed to draw blood, weigh diapers, check her fluids and digestion, and adjust her monitoring equipment while our little girl tossed and turned, cried, rooted (yes, rooted), and wailed. I gave in and put her pacifier in her mouth as the nurse (one of those that REALLY likes to chart) repeatedly sighed, stood up, and glared at me. I guess we were disturbing her charting! Finally, they released our baby to us (seems backwards doesn’t it?) so we could feed her. Again, she sucked down 3 milliliters of unpasteurized Montero Milk and vwalla the morning’s work was done for Annabel!

Full and Content Annabel

While Mary fed and cuddled Annabel, I snuck over a few times to whisper a few words of encouragement to Sophia. She is sound asleep and still medicated. They were able to lower her oxygen level from 41% to 35% and she seems to be stable. While we were there, they also tested her blood / gas levels and they hadn’t changed too much since last night. But she did digest 2 milliliters of the good ole unpasteurized Montero Milk! It seems she is getting a bit better, slowly and surely.

Well my “rest time” is up and we are off to the NICU again.

David