Living (at least part time) in the hospital is a unique experience.  At this point, we still do not have an exact timeframe for when Lyra will get to come home. She continues to make great progress with feeding, but we are still having to utilize the NG tube. Here is what an average day looks like (starting around 12 AM).

• 1 AM: My alarm goes off telling me I need to pump
• 2 AM: I wake up and realize that I haven’t pumped. I stumble into the kictchen, grab a glass of water and the tools I need, put on my special special pumping bra, and hook myself up to be milked. While pumping I proceed to check Facebook, flip through endless tv channels, and play solitaire on my phone. This is all followed pouring my milk into freezer bags, cleaning all of my tools, and likely grabbing a small snack.
• 3 AM: Stumble back into bed
• 5 AM: My alarm goes off telling me it is time to get ready to go back to the hospital
• 6 AM: I wake up with my phone in my hand and realize that I need to get my butt out of bed
• 7 AM: Drive to Hospital
• 8 AM: Walk in and see this beautiful face

• 9 AM – 9 PM: Run through the following activities multiple times in no particular order
  • Feed Lyra
  • Feed Mommy
  • Flip through the TV stations, decide nothing is on, turn on an audiobook, fall asleep
  • Pump
  • Clean pumping tools (does not always come directly after pumping because I seem to be incapable of focusing enough to finish a task)
  • Talk to doctors
  • Talk to nurses
  • Change diapers
  • Fall sound asleep
  • Take pictures
  • Poke at Lyra
  • Start blog post (it normally takes me hours to finish it)
  • Call Mom (aka Grandma)
  • Take 2 hours to convince yourself it is okay to leave the hospital
• 10 PM: Arrive at home and eat “dinner”. Pump, clean tools, cuddle with husband, miss my dog, and feel guilty about not being at the hospital
• 11 PM: Crawl into bed

In other words, my days are long. It’s been 8 days so far for this hospital stay. Hopefully it won’t be much longer, but that all depends on my little one. Right now we are letting her take her time to get her feet under her.

Baby steps.