Maddie and the Boys

So far Maddie has slept well in her crib. I put a couple pillows between the mattress and the box spring to prop her head up, since that's what she was used to in the hospital. I did a good job of elevating one end of the crib because when I went in to check on her at one point, she was laying sideways at the lower end of the crib! Whoops. I removed one of the pillows and she has since stayed in place. Mike and I haven't had that hard a time with her in her own bedroom, probably because we are too exhausted to dwell on it. We have a fancy video monitor, so we can always look to see how she's doing. I need to get a picture of Maddie on the monitor - when she's awake, her eyes looks so creepy. Infrared is weird.

She doesn't really like the oxygen at night, but I think that has more to do with the nasal cannula we have to tape to her face than anything else. I had to laugh at Dr. Lung when she said, "she's a baby, she doesn't have the motor skills to grab and pull on her cannula," in reply to our question about taping it to Maddie's face. ALL SHE DOES is pull on it. We bought some paper tape, and luckily before we left the hospital one of the nurses gave us some detachol to help remove adhesive, which really helps.

Mads has been pretty fussy today. Mike and I are about 90% sure she's starting to teethe. She's drooling a lot, cries for no reason, and has the teeny tiniest of fevers (her baseline temp is 97.8, and today she was at 98.8). Her hands are almost always in her mouth, and today I stuck my finger in there to check for teeth only to have her bite down HARD. Poor baby! And poor us...she didn't nap longer than 20 minutes today, so Mike and I didn't get much done. I have about 150 emails that I haven't read yet, thank you notes to write, and people to call back. I apologize to everyone!

Mike's sister, brother in law, and nephews stopped by our place on their way back north from San Diego. Monica and Sheridan finally got to see Maddie outside of a hospital setting, AND they each held her for the first time (all those wires and tubes in the hospital are tricky). Best of all, Maddie and her cousins finally met. Our oldest nephew is three and a half, and has been asking about his cousin "Madawin" for months. Both boys (our younger nephew is 14 months old) came over to me when I was holding Maddie. The younger one stroked her head, while the older one gave her a kiss on the forehead. It was definitely more attention than I expected they'd give her, and also ALL the attention they gave her as Rigby proved far more interesting to them. Poor dog is still traumatized. We did manage to get the boys to sit still long enough for a few photos. This one is my favorite:


I almost hesitate to write this since we've been really jinxed, but tomorrow Mike and I are planning a date night. My mom is coming to watch Maddie while we go to dinner and a movie. We've had plans for us five different times, only to have to reschedule because of Maddie's health. Fingers crossed we make it out tomorrow. We're just following doctor's orders - Maddie's pediatrician (loooove) told us we needed to have a date night. You know I always listen to doctors.