My Glow Worm Roommate

I awoke yesterday knowing it was my day to be discharged from the 13th floor, my home for the last three weeks.  I would miss the doctors and nurses and my next-door neighbor; after all, as I joked while saying my goodbyes in the afternoon, most of my friends in Boston are at Mass General Hospital.

I felt ready to go, though.  As with my prior c-sections, there's a little fear of being sent home without the support of staff bringing meds, checking incisions, taking temps, and generally clucking over me. No more meals in bed, too.  I prepared for my independence the past few days by getting up and helping myself whenever possible, remembering that this time I wasn't heading home to take care of a newborn and continue to convalesce.  She'd still have a team of caregivers and I'd be on my own.

So I did what anyone displaced in a foreign city and contemplating her options might do:  I moved in with my daughter.  I'm even sleeping on her couch.  This way, I can stare at her all day long (an arguably better view than in my last digs) and be available for developmental milestones which involve me (practicing feeding, for example).  They even bring parents of NICU babies three meals a day.

Husband is staying in the family dorm room--a room hardly bigger than its twin bed.  Hopefully he's getting great sleep.

After acclimating to our new home base, holding Tootsie, and snoozing for a bit, we got excited to head out for dinner for my first non-hospital meal and foray on city streets in three weeks.  Right as we exited the hospital Nephew Steve called to say he and his girlfriend had just arrived in Boston, up from Connecticut.  We made it a double date.

We walked (slowly) through Boston to the harbor for dinner.  It was a beautiful, balmy night, and I played tourist again (picking back up where I started three weeks ago) as we passed the Old State House and several other landmarks nestled among more modern city buildings.  I felt a little giddy, and like a normal person (though my outfit "choice" reflected pajama chic, so any restaurant remotely fancy was out of the question).  We wound up at The Sail Loft, where both Husband and Steve had memories of previous time spent in Boston.  I chose delicious halibut and Husband devoured the lobster roll he'd been craving.  I was great to catch up with family in a city across the country, and under these odd circumstances.

By the end of dinner, though, I was feeling beat and far away from my little baby.  We cabbed it back to MGH to introduce Steve and Tracy to Tootsie.

Like most preemies, she needs phototherapy to counter high bilirubin counts, as her liver isn't developed enough to process bilirubin efficiently.  She'll spend yesterday, today, and tomorrow under the lights to counteract jaundice.  We'll take her out once a day for extended snuggle time, though.

In other Tootsie news, she hasn't had any apneic episodes, and she's regaining weight as of her most recent time on the scale.  Her spinal tap culture hasn't grown any bacteria yet.  All are good signs.

Tonight Husband and I will spend with my sister and her husband in anticipation of Husband's flight back to San Diego on Monday morning.  I'm hoping the girls will be here to meet their sister by the weekend.  Until then, it's all me and my little glow worm, getting the attention it appears she was demanding three weeks ago when my water broke.  

At your service, Sweetie!