Day 88 - Feeling Thankful

Well, Chloe gained a whopping 10grams last night (sarcasm). They increased her feeds to 10cc's per hour and she's still getting 4 extra calories from elecare. And I'm still sending over hindmilk for her. It seems like she should be packing on the ounces...but I won't dwell on her lack of weight gain too much. They do say she should be gaining 1/2 to 1 ounce per day and that is definitely not happening. They hesitate to push her too hard, though, because of her history of intestinal problems and I agree with that. I just need to keep having faith (which I do - for the moment) that she'll start gaining weight soon enough.

In the meantime I'm thankful for every day that I visit Chloe and see her bright-eyed, breathing on her own, pooping in her diaper, sucking her pacifier, etc. The lack of "bad stuff" is such a good thing to have. Every time I go in for kangaroo care I can't help but kissing the top of her fuzzy little head. She's SUCH a sweetheart! I love her I love her I love her!

I think I'm feeling the Thanksgiving spirit today. Right now I'm so thankful we're living in such a great place. One wonderful thing about living in Ohio during this time is all the genuinely kind people we're surrounded by. Solana and I visited our new dentist's office a couple of weeks ago and loved the ladies there (I usually decide how much I like a dentist's office based on how nice the people are). They acted like we were old friends from the moment we walked in the door. Of course, the dentist asked Solana if she had siblings and...well...he got the whole story. I'm not sure how I talked so much while getting my teeth cleaned but I chatted with the hygenist quite a bit and shared Chloe with her. Yesterday we received a beautiful card and very generous grocery gift card from them! What a shock! (If you need a dentist in Centerville, by the way, I highly recommend Alex-Bell Dentistry.) Does this sort of kindness exist everywhere or were we just plopped into the perfect place for the challenges with which we were about to be faced? I wonder...

Dave and I aren't used to accepting generosity from other people. We usually want to say, "Oh no, it's ok. Thank you, though." We're learning how to just say, "Thank You," because people really do just want to be kind and helpful. And, like it or not, we're the people having a hard time - for now.