Tuesday, January 13

Tuesday was a much more quiet day in regards to information. We were able to get a decent night's sleep. However, we are still tired. We got to the hospital earlier in the day and spent some time holding Caden and talking to him. One of the nice things the hospital does is provide meal vouchers for nursing moms of babies in NICU (and other units also). The NICU provides me with labels for bottles for all the milk I pump and then they store the milk for me in NICU. And, I can take a sticker to the NICU clerk and get a meal voucher three times/day for the cafeteria. There is a dollar amount that they will pay. Anything over that, you can pay the difference. It's been really nice because I am able to pump at the hospital (they have pump rooms available) or at the Ronald McDonald House (they have pumps to check out for the duration of the time you'll need one). And, I just take a label to the NICU clerk to get my meal voucher and I can eat in the cafeteria. It has really made it easier for me to be able to pump because I don't have to worry about preparing meals.

After we learned about Caden having the coarc, we decided we wanted to have an anointing for him. So, Greg spoke with both the pastors from our church. They arranged to come back to Palo Alto to do the service on the evening of January 14. After we had talked about this, the hospital chaplin came by NICU and spoke with Greg about any needs we might have. He talked to her about doing the anointing and she said it wasn't a problem at all. She said they could set up a screen around Caden's bed and we could have the service right there. So, it sounds like it's all set for Wednesday night.

The nurse who was on duty Tuesday night told us that every Wednesday morning, the cardiology team gets together to discuss the patients needing surgery and when those will take place. That was the first time we had heard about that meeting so we were glad she told us about it. It was good to know when they might be making the decision regarding when to do Caden's surgery. Other than that, we didn't learn a lot of new information on Tuesday.

Thank you for your prayers as we wait to find out about surgery. We are anxious about it and want everything to go smoothly. And of course, we look forward to being able to hold Caden and cuddle him like a regular healthy newborn.