Written November 2, 2012 11:21am

Generally in our society the word “fat” has negative connotations. It is difficult to come up with ways the adjective fat can be used positively. Maybe a fat check – that would be a good thing – but I’m struggling to find other ways to make that word sound good. However, in the NICU, probably one of the highest compliments you can get is “Wow! You have a fat baby!”. It’s right up there with “Your baby looks stylin’  in those jaundice sunglasses” and “I’ve never seen such rhythmic breathing on a preemie before”. Ok – so compliments are strange in the NICU.

Well, Ellen’s neighbor is a fat baby. Yes. I am jealous. She also eats more than I do (Ok – not really, but the amount of crying she does for food rivals adults – not that most adults cry for food – but you get what I mean). Yes. I am jealous of her appetite. I am jealous that she is fussy. Clearly, I am jealous about many strange things that I must confess for. Luckily, she is being discharged…or at least I thought.

She was supposed to go home yesterday but because of various reasons, she and her screams and her appetite were still right next to Ellen this morning. It’s hard to start the morning next to a screaming baby with extra adipose tissue. It really doesn’t seem to bother Ellen that much because she is so tired that she just sleeps through it. (She also doesn’t seem to be bothered the obvious size difference.) It really doesn’t seem to affect any of the other babies either. It does affect the adults. Hopefully all will go well with her discharge situation and she can go home with her family soon. ASAP soon would be nice. Here’s hoping. I don’t think my jealousy or my nerves can handle much more. 🙂

Even amid screams, I got to enjoy one of my most favorite parts of my routine. Kangaroo-ing! Nurse Nancy (who I absolutely adore) first introduced me to kangaroo-ing a few days ago. Essentially you undress the baby and put them up your shirt with their head coming out of the neck-hole with yours. This skin to skin contact is supposed to be very good for babies’ neurological development – and goodness knows that I am going to do anything to help any sort of development.

The one downfall of kangaroo-ing is that you keep stretching out your shirts. But I look at it this way – a shirt costs $15 (at least the ones I’m wearing right now) and this time is priceless. I love it. It might be my favorite time of the day. I can always dry the shirts on high, right?

Right now Ellen is still gaining weight – she hit her birth weight today! Her A’s and B’s are going down, which is great, but she is still struggling with eating. Most times she needs to be tube fed at least part of the meal. We aren’t even thinking about her coming home until she doesn’t need the tube anymore. You would think she would work harder to get the tube out of her nose (especially when she continues to pull it out herself) but apparently she is quite content to keep going the way she is. The NICU staff keeps telling me that one day it will be like a light bulb switched on and she will amaze us with her eating. Until then, we’ll just keep hoping that the light bulb turns on sooner rather than later.