Life has been an endless cascade of activity since Hugo came into this world. Grandma Bush kept me busy while Nolan was working with the Hawkeye Marching Band. This week was band camp which is an intensive week (9am-9pm) before school starts. Nolan was able to make it to the hospital during lunch time in order to spend time with Hugo. Grandma and I took care of many things from tree branches on the roof to a place for Hugo pictures in the house. Both Grandma and Grandpa Hauta and Grandma Bush have been wonderful about getting us Hugo pictures.
I can't remember the last time I printed a photo. Nowadays I casually take a picture and keep it on my phone or upload it. If Hugo had come home with us it would have been pictures as usual. However, since he isn't with us, it make me so happy to have physical pictures of him around the house. It makes him feel a little nearer. It helps me to place him in our home and daydream of him as a future part of it.
Hugo's most immediate task is to take larger feedings through his tube and get off the IV. Every day they've increased his feeding a little and dropped support from the IV. They check his residual before feedings to make sure he's digested the previous feeding. He's been digesting well but needed to slow down a little on Saturday night as his residual was a little too high to increase feeding again. As a bonus he has been holding his temperature a little bit better each day. They are not trying to make him hold his temperature (focusing on more than one system would be too stressful for the little guy) but if he does it himself they drop the temperature of the isolette to compensate.
Grandma Bush was happy to hold Hugo before she left. He seems to be a very peaceful baby at this time, happy to sleep in anyone's arms. He's also very patient with Nolan and me as we try to learn diaper changing through the holes in the isolette. I hope he brings these qualities home with him. He is, however, a Houdini pee-er. Nolan and I both know we need to be quicker with our diaper game but how he's able to pee all over his clothes without us noticing is beyond the both of us.
On Friday I made my way up to the 12th floor of the hospital to watch Nolan work at the Freshman Orientation. They gather everyone together to form an "I" on the field. Team building, I suppose. The band plays the school songs and they teach the words. Music plays, administration talks, hopefully friends and connections are formed. I never attended an orientation like that in my college years. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it or rolled my eyes. Seems nice and exciting to me now.
They even have a little fireworks show which I watched through the window of Hugo's room. Since this part of the hospital has only been open 6 months they have yet to experience game day. The freshman orientation was only a fraction of the people that flood the streets on game day. I'm curious to see what it will be like to experience a those days from the hospital windows.
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