Thursday afternoon, the next time I had seen Mirah, this is what I found:

She was on a machine called a c pap. I never saw it spelled, so that might not be right.
Whatever the spelling, it broke my heart. She had seemed so well, so to find her like this, was just too much.

They had started her on anti biotics.
They had given her a sticker tag, and she had little IV’s all over her.

Both hands, both feet.
That first trip to the NICU almost killed me.

Friday morning, I got up and took a shower.
I felt a little better.

I put on my makeup, and everything.
Then I was in the NICU, and that was over.

No C pap, and they didn’t have to intubate her, thankfully.
Isn’t she amazing?
They had to giver her a feeding tube.

The needed to test her for meningitis, which apparently can be a side effect of Group B strep. The test is a spinal tap. More tears. She was found negative however, and that was a relief. 

Mom and dad arrived. It took a couple of days, but they allowed mom to hold her first.

This was about the time that they had me start pumping. I pumped at her bedside. It helped my milk come in.

Sunday.
She was looking a little jaundiced.


Her fingernails looked like vampire claws.

Still, she was amazing.

More visitors rolled in:
Krysta came.

Karl and Mirah took their first Sunday nap together.

Dad got to hold her.

Her legs wouldn’t stay swaddled

The bedside vigil was exhausting. We were sleeping at the hospital at that point. We were doing exclusive breast feeding, so I needed to be near by. It did mean that they could remove her feeding tube, which was awesome. BUT it left us totally spent.

My view.

She grew stronger and stronger.

On Wednesday afternoon, they did the carseat stress test. She did ok. Not great. She passed. 

We were so ready to have her home.
We had her little outfit ready for her in her bassinet.

They had her off of oxygen her whole last day, so things were looking good.