Rooming in at the NICU

Although the doctors never could determine what caused Grady's infection, they determined that a full seven day course of antibiotics would be necessary before he could be released from the NICU. We were fortunate enough that they had a room available so I could stay in the NICU even after I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday. That meant that those middle-of-the-night breastfeedings could continue--hooray!

The last three nights of our stay, Grady was actually able to "room in" with me. He was no longer on oxygen or a continuous IV, and they had the room set up to monitor all his other vitals remotely, so it worked quite well. It was very nice not to get a phone call from a nurse every couple of hours whenever he was ready to eat. Instead, I was with him personally and could take care of him directly.

We have felt so blessed this week, knowing that Grady was in good hands and that our Heavenly Father was watching over us. It is truly humbling to be surrounded by so many babies with such serious complications. All week long, Grady got called "huge, " "enormous," and other such large names, because at 8 pounds, he really was big compared to the little 2 and 3 pound premies around him. I've always marveled at the miracle of childbirth, but after spending a week in the NICU, I realized that with so many million things that can go wrong, it really is miraculous when everything goes right and a healthy baby is born. Thank goodness for all our little miracles.