…to say hi. Mandy had a lovely birthday – thanks for all the good birthday wishes you sent to her! We started the day with a nice birthday breakfast (well, Mandy did. I had broth.) and finished it by passing the last minutes of the day in the NICU with the BabyBug curled up in Mandy’s arms. In between we had visits from family and friends and had a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant. It was a good day.

BabyBuggy has been slow to gain weight since she hit 6 lbs. She’s now up to 6 lbs and 0.5 oz. She is still throwing epic tantrums when she doesn’t get fed right when she is hungry, so the nurses have gradually been shifting her feeding schedule. If she gets too worked up before she gets fed then it takes forever to feed her because she pushes the food out of her belly when she cries. Now she’s getting spoiled too, because when we are there when it happens we pick her up and pat her back to soothe her and let the food go down. She just loves being held so much – how can we not? On the other hand, our nurse said tonight (and I paraphrase), “If you have plenty of time and are very patient, go ahead and hold her every time. Otherwise she is going to have to learn how to self-soothe.” I’m thinking this is good advice. But she looks so tragic when she cries! (I guess that’s how they get you.)

Buggy is still having problems with her repogle (the suction tube). She coughs up spitballs almost every day, and twice now she has started gagging and concentrating so much on coughing up the spitball that she forgot to breathe and her heart rate fell. We watch her like a hawk now because of all these issues.

In other news, this kid is awfully cute. Did you know?