Today was a very good day

Right now our days are centered around feeding Emily every two hours. It has been a godsend to be able to stay in the hospital room two stories above so that we can go down and do all of her feedings ourselves. Today, for the first time she has reached 1.9 kg (4.19 lbs) and this morning she drank all her milk without any problems and actually wanted more. Normally she falls asleep after just a few swallows and we have to spend a lot of time coaxing her to drink more. She was much more alert as well and looking around. The nurse also let me try kangaroo care so overall it has been an excellent day.

Adjusting to being in India with a baby can be challenging and I keep on having to remind myself that we are so entirely blessed to be in the position we are in and focus on the positives. The hospital room definitely is not designed to be comfortable by western standards. One of the other parents (not from the US) described it as being a luxury prison cell. We had to bring in our own towels and toilet paper. The bathroom has a bucket and a shower with cold water. It is almost identical to the set up I had 10 years ago while in the Peace Corps in Macedonia. I’m a little ashamed at how spoiled I’ve become since then. This morning at 5:45 am I had finally fallen asleep after Emily’s 5 am feeding when I was woken up by a lady who walked into our room and urgently said “You have to go”. I automatically assumed something was going on with Emily and jumped out of bed and rushed out of the room only to find that she was the cleaning lady and wanted to push a mop with dirty cold water around our room floor and wanted us out of the way. One of the other parents arranged for both a hotel room and a hospital room which actually is pretty ideal. They have a place to relax in between feeds at the hospital and can take turns going back to the hotel for meals, hot showers and cat naps. I would definitely recommend the hotel and hospital room route for anyone coming in the future who can afford it.

With the exception of the cleaning lady, everyone here has been wonderful. I have complete faith in the care Emily is getting from the doctors and nurses and once I adjusted my perspective on the hospital room it really isn’t that bad. It is a means to an end of seeing Emily as much as possible while keeping her in the safest environment possible which is the NICU. There is filtered hot water available outside the room and one of the other parents and I took a tuk-tuk to a local grocery store that specializes in imported goods. I was able to buy comfort food such as instant cappuccino mix, Quaker oats and tea and I’ve gotten the hang of how long something can be left in the refrigerator to make it ice cold but not frozen rock solid. Mohammed, the Planet Hospital concierge, also provided us with two cell phones and a mobile broadband device for our computer so that Brian and I can contact each other and have internet access while at the hospital even though there is no wireless.

Before going into the NICU everyone has to take their shoes off. I was so tired after the last feeding; I forgot to put my shoes back on and just started walking up the two flights to our room. The security guard actually called me back and told me to put my shoes on. It was pretty embarrassing and as I foggily headed back to our room it made me truly appreciate how much stress some of the other parents with multiples and/or more preemie babies must have gone through or be going through. Ula and Saul, I don’t know how you are doing it and my heart goes out to you!