Her First Night Alone with Mom and Dad

Emily moved out of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and upstairs to our room in the hospital last night. She survived her first unsupervised night with her parents. Her parents ... uh ... well, they are still here!

Actually things are going pretty well. We have to work on keeping her warm, that's the main thing. She's covered in blankets and wearing multiple layers, hats and socks on her feet. She weighed a little less than yesterday, and is still less than her birthweight.

We're also worried about keeping clean - we need to be obsessive about washing our hands so she doesn't get an infection. Its been much more difficult upstairs here because many more people come and go - the nurses, the cleaning lady, the doctor on rounds, the sisters (nurses) taking blood, checking her feeding amounts, bringing the bath and the scales, etc - than do in the NICU and each can't resist giving her a pinch or touching her. (Can't blame them! She's so cute!) I get the feeling that they have a lot of children on this floor who are not premature babies so maybe the awareness of infection danger is not as vigilant. SO... we need to be better at insisting people WASH THEIR HANDS!!

This morning our time - evening in south Texas - I got on Skype with my sister and mom while Amber was out doing errands. We got the laptop so they could see Emily and after I had to go out in the hall to get hot water for her bottle, Emily started crying and I came back to the room to hear Anne singing "You are my sunshine"! So thanks for the assist, Aunt Anne!!