Life in the NICU

Luckily we have very little to report with Miss Bella this week. Eat, sleep, heal and grow...A series of uneventful days is a huge blessing.

I wanted to take the time to talk about our life in NICU. Some of you are very familiar with it and the rest of you we pray will never have to experience it....We received some wise advice in the very beginning from my dear father in law who told us that we just have to find a new normal. Here is our new normal for now:

Our days include several visits to Bella throughout the day. Upon each visit we sign in, scrub for 3 minutes from the elbows down and put on a hospital gown. Many of you have asked about visiting her. Unfortunately for her safety and the safety of the other babies we were only given 6 visiting spots and a spot for clergy member from our church. This reduces the risk of sickness and such being brought in. During her stay at NICU these are the only folks that are allowed to visit. Of course these spots were filled with immediate family members, unfortunately most all of these family members are not local so Miss Bella does not get a whole lot of visitors besides mom and dad. Another unfortunate is that siblings must be 4 years of age to visit so Dylan has not and probably will not see his little sister for quite some time.

Bella gets her milk and assessment every 3 hours and the isolette is left closed otherwise unless she starts acting up and they have to check on her. If we are there during the assessment then we get to do things like change diaper, take temperature, sometimes assist with medicines and tuck her in. She seems to respond best to minimal stimulation so we hold her hand or rest our finger against the bottom of her foot and speak soothing words to her. Our visits with the isolette open last only as long as Bella will allow, she is the boss and boy I tell you she is a girl that will let you know what she wants (I like to think she gets that from me ;))

The remainder of our time visiting is spent getting information from our nurses on orders for the day or next day, discussing their thoughts and opinions and on some days they act as our therapists listening to all aspects of our life and feeding us their wisdom. Have we mentioned yet just how incredible these Nurses and Respirational Therapists are??? We have found the NICU to be incredibly peaceful so Chris sometimes finds it a great time to take a cat nap. We spend much time in prayer and meditation there as well. We have several books that have been wonderful resources and inspiration for our spiritual journey that we read daily. One of course is Bella's bible in which we read and highlight scripture that some day we plan to teach her and another is a book called Jesus Calling which is daily devotionals that always seem to hit home.

Oh yes I should mention that we are not allowed to take calls by her bed....SO if you have called one of us and we have not answered that is possibly why....Text or email is best for now unless you don't mind waiting on a returned call.

We have come to cherish our time there, it is not the scary and cold place that most hospitals can be. It is warm, friendly and these babies are surrounded by more love than most of us each day. It definitely makes the long journey ahead not so bad.

We have learned that mainly life in the NICU is just one big balancing act. A balancing act for the medical staff to keep all organs and her amazing body working together.... A balancing act between visits with Bella, spending enough time with Dylan and managing to keep all other aspects of our life moving forward.... A balancing act between sleeping enough to fight off exhaustion and staying awake long enough to make the last sentence possible (obviously I am still working on this one since I am posting this at 5:00 am on a Saturday morning).... A balancing act of accepting all of the incredible help from family, friends and even strangers to get us through this time.... A balancing act of finances and career to ensure a future for both of our kids without sacrificing the time we have today.... A balancing act of our spiritual journey and growth along the way....One big balancing act..And I am incredibly happy to report that with much prayer, assistance from all of you and a cautiously optimistic hope for Bella's future, most days are for the most part: balanced.

Thank you all again for the continued prayers, thoughts and support.
Much love to each of you
Telisha