A great day.

Baby Charlotte had a fantastic day today.

They have officially upped her milk intake to 35mL per feeding, and she is showing no signs of having any digestion problems or spitting up too frequently. In other words...she likes mama's milk. ;)

The only challenge that her current intake poses is the fact that, 6 days after delivery, I am only producing between 40mL and 60mL of breast milk each time I pump. I am pumping every three hours around the clock, keeping on her schedule, but it pretty much leaves no room for "I'm too busy to pump," or, "3am? Really? I'd rather sleep." Lol.

In fact, as I write this, Tom is making a midnight run to the hospital with about 3 bottles of breast milk just to stay ahead of the game.

Have I mentioned how absolutely phenomenal and supportive my husband is? Not only does he hang out with me during each pumping session, but he loves on me during the random moments throughout the day when my hormonally over-driven self starts to cry for no reason. Lol.

Anyways, back to the baby.

Aside from upping her milk, they also removed her IV today. This is huge. Not that it's necessarily a milestone (it is), but she no longer has a big ol' fucking needle sticking out of her hand. Every time I see that thing it makes me cringe, so to know now that both of her hands are free and clear - it makes me so happy.

Because she is no longer baking under the lights for jaundice, we have been able to do more skin-to-skin time. Tom took the morning shift, and I went for the afternoon/evening.

I have to say, watching Tom do skin-to-skin with Charlotte is what has already led me to nickname her my little kangaroo. He tucks her into his polo shirt, and all you can see are her little eyes and lips popping out the top. It's so damn adorable, I can't even begin to describe it. And I'd take a picture of it, but they might take his Man Card. So you'll just have to use your imagination.

It's so weird - there is something about being in the NICU, under very dim lights, with the hum of the machines - even in my most awake state, the second they place that baby on my chest, I am out. She and I just lay there together, often just sleeping with our noses touching (I used to do this with Thad as well). I take advantage of the times when her eyes are open, though - singing to her (poor girl), reading her books, laughing at the fact that she is totally incapable of seeing straight and always has her eyes crossed. She was doing an awful lot of fist pumping today - clearly she was excited about the great day she had.

The final victory of the day was the fact that she drank 15mL of milk from a bottle. Like I mentioned earlier, the suck/swallow technique doesn't typically occur in babies earlier than 34 weeks. So she's a little shy of being of age for this kind of thing - to take half of her feeding with the bottle was a huge deal. Remember - 48 hours straight of bottle and/or breast feeding, coupled with a few other things, and this little girl will be able to go home.

So we will definitely continue to work on this one!

With all of the fuss about a brand new baby, it has started to feel like Thaddeus is being set aside. That has been one of the most emotionally difficult things about this whole process of having a baby in the NICU - not only is my time divided, but it's divided in such a way that I'm not even home.

Two days ago, Tom called me at the hospital to let me know that Thad had taken his training wheels off his bike and was officially riding around the neighborhood like a big boy. All he kept asking Tom was, "Will mommy be home in time to see me ride my bike?" Of course I was. And we took him out that night for his Big Brother dinner to celebrate. But it was still hard to miss that milestone in his life.

Yesterday, he took his first huge fall off the bike since the training wheels came off. Now, Thad rarely cries out of pain...or really, ever. But according to Tom, he was beside himself. And of course, I wasn't here to console him. Tom said he kept saying, "I want my mommy!" over and over. Ugh. My heart aches over little things like this.

Even though I am having a hard time balancing Thad, Charlotte, pumping, school, and even photo sessions (yes, I am already working again, lol), I am thankful to have such a wonderful support system. My friend Danielle has been incredibly helpful; our neighbor, Jodie, is a God-send; and we have several friends who have brought meals to us or volunteered to help with babysitting. I am so thankful to everyone who has reached out to us, aiding in this process.

Tomorrow, I'll post some photos. Maybe they'll be of Thad on two wheels...he's pretty damn proud. And so am I. ;)