Day 12, Thursday, November 25, Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for today. The biggest being the tiniest, cutest little guy you’ve ever seen! I am so thankful for Tate’s continued good health, his breathing on his own, his good eating , his weight gains, every chance we get to hold him and touch him, the bonding we are doing with him, though limited, at least we do get those 2 times a day. I am also thankful today for a wonderful, emotionally strong, loving husband who has done nothing but be by my side through the last 2 weeks. He has been my rock through all of this. I’m thankful for my 2 ½ year old big boy who is most definitely the funniest, cutest (yes, both of my sons are the cutest), loving kid on this earth. Thankful for all the times he makes me smile, the funny things he says and that he can entertain himself all day playing one sport and then another, and another and another. I am so thankful for each minute I get to spend with each of them and thankful that I know this separation from Tate is only temporary and we’ll make it through and be a family soon.


Tate is now up to eating 19 ml at each feeding and is still not having any residual (meaning he’s digesting all of it) when they check his tummy before his next meal. His bilirubin is back up to 7 today but that is not high enough for the lights. In fact, the nurse said she didn’t have orders to even check his bilirubin level tomorrow so I assume that means they think it’s going to stay down low enough to not require the lights again. Tate is having some problems with constipation and dirtying his diapers so he had a suppository today. He had a big dirty diaper after that so maybe that will get him cleared out and he will start going better on his own. It will help his bilirubin levels to stay down if he has more dirty diapers. And….drum roll please….Tate now tips the scales at 3 pounds, .7 ounces. Go Tate! He gained 52 grams today.


I quit taking my pain pills yesterday and am feeling really good. I even made dinner tonight which made me feel a little more normal. However, I do have a little bit of a sniffly nose which is really worrying me. I have been boosting up on Vitamin C and D so hopefully I can ward it off. If I do get sick I won’t be able to go see Tate till 24 hours after my symptoms are gone. So that is definitely something else you can add to your prayer lists for us – to keep all of us healthy this year so that we can still go see him. And wisdom to know if we are too sick to go see him so that we don’t spread our germs to Tate or the other babies in the NICU.

Speaking of germs….I know my family all though we were a little overboard when Hudson was born about the whole germ thing. Well, just a fair warning to you all – you ain’t seen nothing yet. We will have to be 10 times more careful about exposing Tate to people and germs than what we were with Hudson. I think it’s safe to say that Tate, Hudson and I might just hibernate the winter away and won’t come out till the spring when all the yucky sicknesses are gone.

I bought Hudson a book about the NICU called “No Bigger Than My Teddy Bear.” It’s written from the perspective of a little boy whose baby brother is in the NICU and gives a tour of the NICU and talks about what all the machines are. There’s even a page about how mommy is gone a lot visiting baby brother but that when she comes home we spend special time together. I try to really stress that page when I read it! It’s a little long so I wasn’t sure if Hudson would like it or not but he sat very still and listened to me read the whole thing. I think it might help him understand a little bit more. We’ll just read it to him every night and talk about baby Tate and hopefully that will help him during this time.



All the marvels of modern medicine yet what the baby needs is his mommy....