Curious George (er, um, I mean Colin)

Right now, it seems that the only real thing keeping Colin in the hospital is his eating habits. Since they appear to be planning to send him home on oxygen, as soon as he breaks his dependence on the feeding tube he can come home. The nurses at night seem to have the best luck getting him to take his bottles. With me, in the mornings, he is more interested in looking around than in eating, although I know he’s hungry. 

This desire to see what’s going on also makes burping Colin challenging. He won’t stay leaning forward — after a couple of seconds he sits upright and starts looking around again. And he does this whether I’m holding him in front of me and supporting his head with my hand or putting him against my shoulder to burp. 

In addition to a very strong curious streak, Colin also seems to have a very well-developed sense of time. I try to get to the hospital at roughly the same time every day (around 8:30 in the morning) to change his diaper and feed him. Yesterday, I walked into the nursery at 8:35 and he was crying. As soon as I said good morning, he began to settle down. 

His nurse told me he had just started crying about 2 minutes before I walked in. And this is the third or fourth time he has done this. In fact, the one day I was late (I didn’t make it until 8:55) he was nearly inconsolable by the time I arrived to hold him. 

As one of the current longest-term residents in the unit, Colin also has everyone wrapped around his very little finger. He manages to get held and snuggled by at least a couple of nurses every day when we’re not there. In fact, the other day, his nurse moved her computer over to his crib and held him for a couple of hours while she did her charting because he was fussing. (He LOVES to be held, and usually settles down when someone picks him up.)

Of course, this may pose a challenge when Colin comes home and joins his sister, who also LOVES to be held and can be quite insistent about being picked up. It will be interesting (after we’re through this stage of course) to see how we manage to keep them both happy until they’re better able to settle themselves down. 


We have a meeting with the October doctor this morning, at which we hope to find out his views on what Colin needs to accomplish to come home and whether he is expecting that Colin will be able to wean off the oxygen or not. 

We found out on Monday that Veronica will need to be on the apnea monitor for probably another six weeks — so if we’re able to bring Colin home and he needs to be on oxygen, our house is going to resemble a spider’s web with its tangle of cables and wires. For that reason, I really hope Colin can get off the oxygen before he comes home — but not enough, I think, that I’ll want him to stay in the hospital longer just for that. 


I will try to remember the camera today so I can post some [close to] three month pictures of the babies. I need to record how chubby Colin is starting to look. (He’s up to 5 pounds 5 ounces as of last night.)