Friday, August 14, 2009

Fragility

Today was a rare event-free day. No ultrasound, no equipment change, no additional tests. (That I know of. Maybe they're messing around in there when I'm not hovering by the isolette. I mean, she is part of a preemie study. Supposedly they're just looking at her poop and maybe some blood when some is being drawn anyway. But we didn't go over the paperwork very thoroughly when we signed her up... Great, she's probably been cloned in some freaky underground lab in Hanover or something.)


Ahem. Anyway. She did receive a blood transfusion last night or early this morning. Here's how amazingly delicate her skin is:



You can see every vein. Her skin is so thin it's flushed red from the increased hemoglobin. I realize this photo doesn't show her color terribly well, but in person she looked like one of Tom's red cooked chickens. She practically glowed through her translucent skin, like a tiny fragile ember. In just three weeks, I've grown so used to her appearance that I'd nearly forgotten how delicate she is.

The other thing you can see in the photo? It's so cute I can hardly stand it. Can you guess? I'll give you a hint. It's just above her diaper, right next to her shiny silver heart monitor sticker. That's right, that little divot there. It's her belly button! Don't you want to poke it with your finger?

Or maybe that's just me. After all, I live with a three year old who spends 80% of her waking hours fiddling with her outie. The tendency was bound to rub off on me.

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