Ahhh....

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Because the IRS doesn't really seem to know that Julia has booked us an extended stay at La Casa Geisinger this week, Chad headed home tonight to interact with TurboTax and get our taxes done. So I'm in charge of the day's summary post. :)

So today, we had pretty much complete freedom from the wires! Except for the times Julia had to get her antibiotics and be hooked to an IV, we had her free and clear to more easily carry, nurse, snuggle, change diapers...you name it! Everything was easier today with her not hooked up to the monitors. She was much more relaxed by it too, I think (you would be also, if you didn't have parents accidentally pulling on wires attached to sticky probes on your chest and belly every time they picked you up!). We snapped this funny shot after I laid her down at some point hoping to swaddle her. It just seems to me like the caption should be "Ahhh..." :)



We even, on the recommendation of a nurse, took her on a little field trip down to the snack bar when we went for lunch. Although we felt slightly like we were breaking her out of jail by carrying her through the hallways swaddled in a clearly-Geisinger patient blanket (and although I realized halfway to the cafeteria that I still had my cat slippers on instead of actual shoes!), it felt entirely refreshing to be carrying our little newborn daughter around, and enter into conversations in the elevator with complete strangers cooing over her and asking how old she was. She truly does look a million times better! As scary as it was to see how quickly her skin declined as this infection hit her last week, I think it has been even MORE amazing to see how quickly things have healed and cleared up! Literally, in a handful of days, her skin has gone from open sores to scabs to just a little blotchy and red. It has been somewhat humorous to see parts of her face continue to fall off onto things these last few days... (I had to warn Chad not to eat the crumbs off of my breakfast plate this morning, as half of the "crumbs" were pieces of her skin... :)

We took a picture today of her sad little IV foot, just because they've had to entirely splint it to counteract how strongly she bends and kicks! She definitely does NOT like anybody touching her feet. Chad thinks, with the 2 IV ports, that it looks like she has a million different toes... We'd appreciate specific prayer that this IV would continue working from now until we leave! They had to stick her 3 more times overnight last night when they had issues with the 2nd IV location of our stay... Hopefully, 3rd times the charm!



So overall, it was a very good day. She continues to be responding more like the baby we had in the first two weeks -- mostly contented to snuggle and look around when she's awake, easily consoled when she needs something like food or a diaper, and just a joy to interact with as she makes her funny faces!

I just have to post one more picture before I'm done. She has really taken to this little pacifier attached to a stuffed frog that they provided for us -- it has definitely helped through some of the poking and prodding she has had to endure. Today, she actually started to hold it in herself at times! SO cute to see our sweet mitt-handed baby hugging her little friend Mr. Frog.


We hope for a good report from the doctor in the morning, as we get updates on her renal ultrasound from this afternoon, as well as hear more about their decisions for the rest of her antibiotic course!
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