removal of the plastic mustache

Today has been a good day. Nettie has been doing really well, and this morning they removed the tube that was blowing air into her nose; no more plastic mustache. Even more exciting, last night we learned from Nurse Gina that not only can we hold Nettie Maude while she'd swaddled up, but we can get all hippy and do skin-to-skin contact with her. She looks so peaceful and contented while we do this, you almost forget she's got IVs and monitors all over her. The birthing hospital has posters everywhere, including our room, of shirtless moms holding naked newborns to promote skin-to-skin contact and how good it is for babies and bonding. These had been making me feel like a bad parent every time I saw them; now I feel like we could be in the photos. More importantly, our little girl seems so happy while snuggling.

A side effect of her heart condition is that, until after the surgery, they can't put any food into her stomach (something to do with the drug they're giving her to keep her blood mixing as it did in utero). Newborns don't actually eat that much, so this isn't that big of a deal (more on this later too), but she is starting to get a little cranky. When Julie is doing skin-to-skin, she has to be careful not to let Nettie find her boobie. Today, Nettie found her dad's nipple, but then started crying when she realized it was a fake. Life is tough, kiddo.

To give more props to our hospitals, Brigham and Women's (for labor), and Boston Children's (for surgery), have been amazing about promoting and facilitating breastfeeding. Even though Nettie Maude can't nurse and eat right now, Julie is pumping, and they are labeling and freezing the colostrum (pre-breast milk stuff chock-full of goodness for babies) and milk to feed it to Nettie, in the order it was produced, after the surgery.

Other good news - because Nettie can't have food in her stomach, today they put in a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line so they can send nutrition straight to her blood stream. The PICC is basically a really long IV that goes through an arm or a leg and follows a vien to almost the heart, where whatever they put in there gets distributed throughout the body. Nurse Gina said they can then give her the equivalent of a steak-in-a-bag, which will happen tomorrow morning. I like to think of it as the apogee of room service. And I would demand nothing less for my daughter.