Penelope is 10 weeks and 1 day

Penelope turned 10 weeks old yesterday.  In a couple of weeks she will actually reach her due date. 

Trent and I did "care by parent" on Monday night.  It went really well and we enjoyed  being able to spend so much time with our little girl.  We had our own room with a bed, bathroom, etc. and the nurse wheeled Penelope into the room in her bassinet.  We were in charge of all of her care throughout the night, although the nurse checked in on us every few hours to make sure everything was ok.  We did all the feeding, changing, comforting, etc.  As soon as we turned out the light to go to sleep, she wailed.  Luckily, it turned out she just had a really wet diaper and wanted to be changed.  Otherwise, she slept a lot.  Trent and I were both really tired yesterday.  He had to go to work but I was able to go home and sleep for a few hours. 

Earlier this week, the nurse practitioner discovered Penelope has a little hernia. The hernia occured because her abdominal cavity didn't have a chance to close up before she was born.  This is really common in preemies, although it is a little less common in girls than boys.  She will have surgery on Friday to fix it.  This surgery is one of the most common pediatric operations that are performed and it is really simple and quick;  the surgeon will just close it up.  This is usually an outpatient surgery but obviously she will go back down to the NICU when it is done.  I'm thankful that her nurses will be in charge of her post op care and not me - better to leave that to the professionals when you have the chance.  I can choose to be in the OR with her during the surgery.  I haven't completely decided if I want to watch it or not.  That is more of my sister's thing. 

Otherwise, she is doing really well.  She hasn't had any episodes in a couple of days.  The team is hoping that she will be able to go home after she stabilizes from the surgery. So she may be home by mid to late next week.  Of course, if she bradies again, that is all out the window.  It all depends if her little body is strong enough yet.

Thanks for checking in.  I'll update more soon.