up grade/down grade

Monday night we had a pretty big break though!  The doctors came to round on Carter, and informed us that they were transferring him over to the Special Care nursery at Abbott. He had shown some pretty nice gains: he wasn't on any form of extra oxygen and they had turned off his heat lamps and was maintaining his body temp while being bundled up. They told us that he was no longer considered "critical" and could graduate from a level 3 NICU to a level 2! Woo-Hoo! One step closer to going home!

So, we started our journey from Children's to Abbott. On the way there I could feel something brewing inside of me.  The emotion I was feeling was anxiety. I was excited for the upgrade, but scared of the change. I was comfortable at Children's with his nurses and his care. I am finding out, I don't really do well with change lately...

When we rolled into Special Care, I was taken aback. The Special Care unit looked nothing like the NICU.  It basically looks like a regular nursery at any 'ol hospital. A big room with scattered babies everywhere (okay, not "everywhere", but that's what it felt like when coming from our own private room at Children's). They wheeled us into a corner and transferred Carter into a bassinet. We had brought a whole cart of our stuff from his old room, and there was no where to put anything.  We were informed that we had a "cubby and a drawer" for our personal belongings. I then asked where I was supposed to nurse and pump if every thing's just out in the open. So our nurse brought over some screens and set those up, and drug in a few chairs from the front. I took one look at Carl and immediately started bawling. I just couldn't stop myself. I wanted to go back to our beautiful private room at Children's where we had privacy galore and more room than we needed. I wanted my big reclining chair back so I could cuddle with Carter more comfortably. Quite honestly, I was being a spoiled brat, but I just couldn't help it. The nurse from Children's came over, gave me a hug, told me everything was going to be okay, and then asked "Do you want any med's?". I thought about it for a few seconds, shook my head, and told her that I would be okay. Carl tried to talk me out of my hysterics, but he finally conceded to the fact that there was nothing he could say to make me feel better. He knows better than anyone else that I tend to cry after I have babies. It's just what I do. Everything was all hitting me all at once . . . the fact that we hadn't seen the girls in 5 days wasn't helping matters either (Claire had gotten the stomach flu last Thursday and couldn't be anywhere near a NICU....really?!?)

(Carter was in much better spirits than his mother)

Tuesday morning I woke up and felt much better. I am happy to announce that Carter has been eating really well! I always give him a little pep talk before each feeding and he seems listen. As soon as he can take all of his feedings orally and continue to gain weight, we will be on our way home!! :)