Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2007 marked Nathan's 78th straight day in the NICU. 

All things being considered, though, Nathan was doing really well.  And we had a lot to be thankful for.  They kept bringing the settings down on the CPAP, which meant that he would hopefully be coming off it soon.  His feedings were going well.  Slowly, but well.

And he started making noise!  His voice was very hoarse and he didn't say much, but Nathan had started to make "baby noises," which was really, really exciting.  After 11 weeks of him making no noise at all, it was incredibly exciting to hear anything! 

And most importantly, Nathan was 78 days old!  Our sweet little boy, who had been through soooo much, was still with us.  And he was making progress!

 But at the same time, Thanksgiving day really bummed us out.  Earlier that month we had openly hoped and prayed that Nathan would be home by Thanksgiving, so that we would have extra to be thankful for.  But we learned early in the month that that wasn't going to happen.  So it was sad to still be in the hospital.

In addition, Nathan had spiked a fever a couple of days before,and they suspected that he might have an infection.  So they drew blood, took fluids, and poked and prodded him to the point that he was very, very unhappy and didn't like anyone touching him for a couple of days.

But perhaps the saddest thing about being there was being there alone.  Our families were hundreds of miles away.  And we didn't feel like we really knew anyone or had any friends outside of the hospital.  So it was a very lonely day.

Fortunately, the hospital provided a free Thanksgiving "dinner" for the parents of all the patients in the hospital on Thanksgiving day, for which we were very grateful.  But sitting alone in the cafeteria just seemed to add to the sadness of the day.

So we, who are normally big fans of Thanksgiving, were more than a little bummed out by the day.  Or maybe it was just the fact that I only got one piece of ham...either way, we were thankful when the day was over.