Things are looking good

It's the middle of the night and I'm watching Tim sit in the rocker in our room at TG and feed Clare.  He's incredible with her, confident and motivated and unafraid.  He is so clearly crazy about her.  Now he's measuring out how much Clare consumed (over 50 mls!) so we can call our nurse and report it.  Her consumption has been so good that the nurse believes we'll be able to get out of here pretty quickly in the morning (how about now...?).  We will no doubt be renting a scale to keep track of her weight and how much she consumes via me.  We are indeed eager to get home and get settled in.

As we look to our move home, we have to keep a few things in mind.  Clare is still a preemie and won't be a term baby for four more weeks.  She is still easily overwhelmed and tired out. As much as we want to show her off and pass her around, we've been warned to keep her activities focused on building her relationship with us so that she feeds well, gains weight, and thrives.  We feel like we're well on our way:  Clare is opening her eyes to look at us more frequently than she did in the ICN, which indicates her readiness to interact with us. Nonetheless, she is going to do best if we shelter her for a few more weeks yet.  I want so much to say, "everyone who's wanted to meet her, hold her, and play with her, come on over!"--but we can't yet.  I just hope that you'll keep us in mind over the month of July and that, as we get closer to that due date of July 24, that you will still want to come meet her.  We will keep updating the blog to let you know when she will make her debut into society.  Until then, please know we appreciate you, your thoughts and prayers, and that we are very eager to share Clare with you just as soon as we can.