A Rocky Road...

...best describes today (and I don't mean the ice cream flavor).

When I returned to the hospital for Maria's 1pm feeding, she was acting differently. She was more lethargic. I looked over the photos of her from the last two days and realized that she looks whitish/grey and "vein-y". All the doctors comment on her paleness when they look at her. I guess her anemia didn't really hit me with a reality check until this afternoon when I saw her behavior change.

Suddenly, I couldn't wait another second for the blood to arrive to the NICU. The ETA was 1:30pm. The time came and went...2pm...came and went....2:30.... finally around 2:45pm, the blood arrived.

I hung around for about 10 minutes after she began her transfusion. If she was going to react adversely to the blood, it would present within 10 minutes. She took to the blood fine...hallelujah! She received 12cc's over the course of three hours. At 3pm I took a coffee break and called Mom. When I returned to the NICU around 4pm, Maria already looked more pink. Eventually she perked up and was acting more normal...very feisty.

When we arrived again around 7pm, the nurse was a bit flustered and said that Maria was only "okay". Apparently she was extremely feisty (obviously feeling better), but was very restless.

The most difficult part of today (and I was there for about 7 hours), was seeing Maria poked and moved and poked around some more. She really didn't get good rest at all. While I was there, I never saw her very peaceful. For a girl who usually sleeps approx 20 hours a day, my heart just broke for her.

Her most restful period today was cuddling with dad. She slept deeply and peacefully on Joe for an hour this evening. When we left, she was settled and sleeping again.

She'll take another 12 cc's of blood from 11pm-1am tonight. In the morning the Doctor will take another blood cell count, and see if another transfusion is necessary.

So, I guess these are the setbacks that we were warned about. And I guess the mentally draining day is apart of the roller coaster ride they we were warned about.

The good news today is that Maria got to cuddle with Joe...and somewhere in all of this, I finished the laundry and ironing...I even got to bake a casserole. Oh, and the city is finally thawing out. In our weakness, He is strong.