Pump, pump the jam...

Here we sit in a quiet little room outside of the nursury... the only sound to be heard besides our chit-chat is the "whew-shhh-shhh" of the small contraption in the corner that looks strangely like a time machine...attached to my amazing sport of a wife by some small clear tubing and two bottles, that I pretend are bull-horns at some big sporting events...probably more often than I should- but Steph is patient with me. We have made our share of fun little games out of this ritual we repeat every 2 1/2 hours... some of which include count-downs similar to the space-shuttle launch.

I guess our little games help distract us from the fact that we are missing the third member of our little breakfast club... we always make sure to include her by putting on a slide show of recent pictures or telling stories about her or sharing dreams of the future. They say it helps stimulate the milk production...but I think it's survival technique. No one tells you about this part of becoming parents! Oh wait... no...EVERYONE tells you about it...but you really don't understand what it's like until it's you. That's just how it is. And it's a whole different world from anything we've heard about, when your baby is in the NICU. It's not that we are ungrateful in the least for all of the miracles we've seen in the past few weeks....but that little machine is a poor replacement for that sweet little girl sleeping away cozy in her isolet.

But we'll make it...together you can do anything. Steph is doing an amazing job at feeding our baby long-distance... and my small token is that I'm getting really good at washing those bottles. Avery is doing her part by keeping her food down and growing. She's up to 11 ccs...and they are going to start fortifying her milk today.

Well...there goes the machine... I've got to lable the milk...run it to the freezer and give our little angel a kiss goodbye through the plexiglass. We're late for our nap...again :) I hear you never really catch up from here on out...