Grandma's Surprise

Grandma got a big surprise tonight when she flew in. The nurse deemed that Hope was big enough that Grandma can hold her now. So Grandma got to love on her for the first time since the night she was born. What fun! Hope slept through most of it, but Grandma was excited.

As for other news....Hope got a bath today. Her nurse, Nicki, was tired of her stinky feet so she attacked her with some Johnson's baby shampoo. I personally hadn't thought she was stinky before, but she sure smelled good afterwards. I love the smell of freshly washed baby! It was just a sponge bath and Nicki couldn't get to half of her head because of the pic line, but it was still nice.

However.....Nicki casually mentioned that she wondered when Hope would get her voice back. "What do you mean? Back?" "Oh, this isn't normal. She's really hoarse. She should be much louder than this." Oh. One of the risks of her PDA ligation was that one of her vocal chords could be paralyzed, causing her to be hoarse sounding. It could be that she just has had so many tubes down her throat that she is a little hoarse, but we don't know. I'm really hoping. The nurse tonight, Susan, said she screamed at her during care time and she sure heard it. She said she sounded hoarse, but she definitely could hear her. Oh please, Lord, don't let her have trouble with her voice. I really felt that Hope was going to be fine because God had so miraculously saved her, but now I'm realizing that she may have a lot of stuff to deal with. I know she is going to be who God designed her to be, but I sure hope she doesn't have to struggle really hard her whole life. She is a really amazing, tough, special little girl.