another day with Sami

I spent the whole day today with Sami. She eagerly ate when I gave her a bottle, even though she doesn't do so with the nurses. They joked that I should be there around the clock for every feeding. She is still alternating bottle feeding with tube feeding.

I was also reminded again that until she is at least two months old, she cannot be around groups of people or anyone that has a chance of being sick, and everyone must wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before touching her. Premies are much more susceptible to germs than regular newborns, especially because she is so small, and will most likely be small for a while. She is wearing premie clothes now, and will move on to newborn clothes in the next few weeks, but most likely wont be wearing 0-3 month clothes until she is 3 months old. We were told that if she gets sick at all before six months old, she will have to be in the hospital on IV antibiotics, so we have decided to follow these rules very strictly until she has had her two-month vaccinations, which may come even later than two months depending on her size. We aren't going to take her out to restaurants, stores or anywhere with large groups of people. Her outings will consist of walks in the neighborhood and doctor appointments. lol. But that's OK. I don't mind us having her mainly all to ourselves for a while.

Today was one of the best days of my life. I sat there for hours just holding her and talking to her rocking back and forth in one of the NICU rocking chairs. She had her eyes closed almost the whole time, but did open them occasionally and look up at me. She also kept one hand wrapped tightly around my finger the whole time. She is amazing, and so cute it melts my heart.