A new pod.

Because Ian is doing so much better, they moved him out of the "highest risk" pod area. He's in a spot next to a window in a quieter section. So nice to have some natural light on him. I just feel that natural light will be more healing for him but maybe that's the photographer in me. The baby next to him cries more but it's nice to have baby sounds near him rather than so many people and more machines. He now is also with a nurse who takes care of two babies at a time. This cuts down on the people as well.

The nurse on today is one of those who chose to be his primary for when she is on. She's so lovely and so into him. She mentioned that the girls will be fighting over him when his other "primary" day nurse gets back from vacation. Only 3 weeks old and already has the girls fighting over him ;-)

He looked terrific today. Not sure if it's the new beautiful light or just that he looked so much more peaceful while sleeping. He was again sleeping almost the whole time I was there again. When I first showed up there was a man there to show me how to give him "infant massage". I was a bit leery, mentioning to the nurse that I didn't think he was ready for a "massage" at this point. She made it clear it was not what I was thinking it was. We closed his curtains and he explained what he was going to do, with my permission of course.

Basically, he said touch was a very important part of healing and he was going to demonstrate the best way to do touch with such a sensitive guy. It was somewhat the way the nurses had already showed me but he was much more mellow and asked Ian in a very calming voice before he did anything. It seemed very soothing to him, although he still didn't open his eyes, he did look even more relaxed after the guy left.

As much as I can, I have my hands on Ian when I'm there so I guess I've been kind of doing the right thing. I've always been very descriptive with him as well, trying to explain what I was doing while placing my hands on him as well as what the nurses and doctors are doing before they do it. The massage man also said it was good to ask his permission. I wasn't doing up to this point but I do remember that from parenting classes with Lila. I have now added that to my conversation with him.

Because of the new issues with the brain, they did another EEG (although it was a spot for 20 min instead of 24 hours) on him in the morning before I arrived. The nurse said he handled it pretty well. I'm so bummed I wasn't there to help calm him and explain it all as it was happening.

Of course we are "looking forward" to the meeting with the neurologist today. Just to understand it all a little better. Not sure if this will put our minds at ease because I have a feeling it's not going to be good news but at least we'll know more instead of speculating which can drive you nuts.