Had a bit of excellent news this week. LJD was transferred out of the Level 4 NICU into the Level 3 NICU. Level 4 is where the most vulnerable babies are cared for. For the military folks in the readership, think MOPP Level 4 all the time. Yep, serious stuff.
Level 3 NICU, the restrictions on the babies are reduced a bit. LJD is still in a sealed Isolette but, it can be opened and she can be held.
One of the key indicators in the decision to move her is that her weight is back up to 710 grams or about 1.6 lbs. As you can tell, above, she's still very tiny, but she's moving in the right direction.
Last week, Commenter Will asked a pretty good question. "I would think the hospitals would have figured out a way to play a copy of mom's heartbeat for them by now. What the heck?" LJW did the research and questioned the nurses in Level 4. She was told that, with the sealed container, sounds reverberate and can get quite loud. The preemies need their rest and any additional noises can negatively influence that. I gathered that the surfaces inside the womb don't have that reverberation problem as they're not made of metal and plastic. Take it for what it's worth.
One of the NICU nurses sent the pic above to LJW Sunday morning as we were having breakfast. Ain't she a sweetheart?
Just as an FYI, responses to blog comments may be delayed today. This is due to another benefit of the Level 3 NICU. The four of us are going to San Antonio to visit her. And....Mrs. J and I get to hold her for the first time!
Yeah...We're excited about that.
On a different subject, a while back, I mentioned that our Wine Maker Friends and their Travel Agent, AKA Mrs. J, had an idea for a wine cruise on the Danube in March of '23. Mrs. J has worked out the details and this past weekend took advantage of an "Event" at the winery to measure interest.
The Event was the annual "Texas Hills Vineyards Grape Stomp". I guess this has been going on for several years, but this was the first we'd attended.
Holy Cow, was that fun!
We got there early and got settled in at our table. Mrs. J laid out all her info papers and such. I think my name changed at that point from "juvat" to "HoneyWoodjaGofer". At least that was what she was calling me at the time.
Anyhow!
While most of the wineries in the area have a wine club and regularly schedule events for them, we tend to avoid them because well...It seems there are two types of people these events attract. Type 1, the "Oooooh, Nice Nose, with moderate overtones of blueberry and balderdash" and Type 2, the "How many glasses can I consume in the shortest period of time."
Neither appeal to us.
That wasn't the case with this one. First, the group was... well, let's just say, I was in the "younger" half of the age group. Second, was the theme of the event. Which was....
There were several "Lucy's" decked out for the event, and they did have barrels of grapes that one could get in and stomp while having your picture taken for
Thank you Lord!
Progress for LJD, great! Good luck with the wine cruise too. We're still four inches under average here, fingers crossed for more for your neck of the woods juvat.
ReplyDeleteNylon,
DeleteThanks. We had some high hopes last week. Big line of T-Storms of the red/purple variety on radar making its way down towards us. Got within smelling distance of us and split in two and went round and nada for us. Our horse ferrier stopped by to trim the horse's shoes. He got 3 inches. So...It'll happen...sometime....soon...I hope.
Good news about your cute little one - may she continue to improve!
ReplyDeleteAs far as river cruises, have been reading that the Danube is experiencing really low water levels such that sunken warships have been exposed. Hope the situation improves by next year.
Tom,
DeleteThanks,
I went and checked with Mrs. J about that. In addition to the riverboats, the cruise line has its own fleet of motor coaches. If a section of the river is too low to transit, you and your luggage would be bused to the next port and transferred to a new riverboat, or stay on board that one for the night and repeat the next morning. Not the perfect solution, but you still get to see the sights and eat/drink/sleep on board. They're tied up at night anyways, so not missing much.
And here I thought the title was a Louis XV reference ...
ReplyDeleteGood news about the little one!
Thanks, Sarge.
DeleteMore great news from the NICU. I'd heard the term, Baby Burrito, but hadn't seen it before.
ReplyDeleteRain. Yesterday evening's rain might have lifted the float disc in the rain gauge, but not by much. This morning there was three quarters of an inch in the gauge, and that pretty equals the prior total rain for late June and August.
We cut the grass two weeks after the last cutting, and in most of the lawn we removed not much of anything.
The event looks like a lot of fun.
JiP,
DeleteYeah, I'd mentioned it a week or two ago. When LJW's phone dinged yesterday with the picture, I knew right away it was going to be featured.
Drought sucks!
It was, fortunately my Stepin' Fetchit responsibilities were primarily in the Before and After portions, so I got to enjoy the music, conversations and people watching. And a little wine. Good time.
Gopher this, gopher that, I wish I was a rabbit!! My old line from Avtech Aviation when I was polishing a purple Piper. Degreasing the bottom of a leaker, it was caked oil from spinner to tail. Scrub all the bugs off the wings... Those water spots required a lot of chamois time... on my back on a creeper. Then it was time for the Turtlewax.... I don't think I'll ever forget that ugly airplane.
ReplyDeleteGreat news on the youngest! Crazy how small she is. I remember when a kilogram kid was a 50/50 proposition.
We got a bit of rain last week. About 0.6". Now all the dormant clump grass is sprouting. I'm gonna cover that stuff with plastic I think. I
HATE that crap. Nothing else will grow here though. I think the heat and lack of rain that this area has basically sterilized the soil. Not much fertile ground, just blow sand. At least in my yard.
STxAR,
DeleteI don't know that I've mentioned it, but I also worked at Avtech when it first opened. I feel your pain on cleaning oil off the bottoms of engines and aft. Quite likely I worked on that airplane depending on how old it was.
Thanks, I'm not a Doctor, nor have I played one on TV, but the NICU staff is optimistic.
What hay I have is a useless yellow-brown color and an eighth isn't going to change that. Although, an hour or so ago, my phone beeped and told me we were under a flood warning now. Gotta love it.
As to sand. Lucky yours is just in the yard, our Roomba is on strike now over cleaning up the sand in the house.
You left the year before I started. We've touched base on that before. Here's hoping you get some sky juice. Running stock is expensive if you have shop for them to eat.
DeleteAs you well know, sand doesn't stay in the yard. My Roomba hasn't been made yet. Still broom and dust pan. I guess that's the difference between enlisted and ociffer.
STxAR, I thought we probably had, but wasn't sure. The Roomba, even when it was working, still required a bit of Broom and Dust Pan. So....It's not THAT big of a difference.
DeleteJuvat, what hopeful news to come back to after being off the grid for a week! Apologies, I am one of those "did not respond really" folks - got overrun by family events and then being (literally) out of touch.
ReplyDeleteAny rain at this point is good rain.
THBB,
DeleteTrue, But....
Now NWS has issued a flood warning!
Much like Salt. It doesn't rain but it pours.
juvat
Juvat, great news regarding LJD!
ReplyDeleteWe too got a spattering of rain at the same time you did, gauge showed 0.06". That evening when the deer feeder went off the turkey's (no not federal administration position holders but Rio Grande variety) still created a dust could as they scratched for milo that I add to the deer corn. More doe infighting under the feeder kicks up an additional large amount of the dirt among the rocks on this hill...very thankful the wind from the South blows it away from porch and my rocking chair...embarrasing to stand up and be in the process of dusting your butt off when neighbors drive by.
Echoing European river levels Tom mentioned, there are "hunger stones" showing up as the water level drops. They are carvings in the rocks along streams to indicate water levels from the late 1600's. I suppose that proves climate change is not a new phenomenon and was happening back then.
Waiting to hear the results of proud Grandparents being able to hold the Grandbaby!
Cletus
Cletus,
DeleteThanks. At the hospital now. Only two allowed at s time. So, got time to respond ( on my phone so no grammar nazis out there).
Got a chuckle on the butt dusting comment.
juvat
And the rains came at about 2:15 this afternoon. Not quiet as much as your gauge shows, but every drop welcome. Looks like the creek came up and will stop traffic coming into our area this afternoon. Although the creek runs year round it drops just as quickly as it comes up. Maybe the hay fields will come on and we can get one cutting before it gets too late.
DeleteCletus
Rain is good
DeletePosts and pictures of LJD always get me in the feels. Glad you get to hold her and see all the prayers in work. We had a light rain about 10 days ago, but it was only enough to move the dirt around on the cars a little. Low river levels are apparently hurting the flow of goods and services on rivers in Europe, which also means those river cruises I'd expect. Same problem when they're too high as the ships can't get under the bridges.
ReplyDeleteTuna,
DeleteThanks. Guess what's going to be featured next week? ;-)
Huzzah for LJD! It is hard for me to grasp how tiny she is. Thanks for sharing the pictures with us, your digital family!
ReplyDeleteRE: Wine. My son and his wife just bottled their 2021 Pinot. First time for all of it to have been grown in their “front yard”. 96 bottles. Now if they can just figure out a way to ship it to Florida! Lavernevineyards.com
D4,
DeleteJust got done with my time with her. What a wonderful time. More to follow. Short answer, she's doing great!
juvat
Yep, we're up to around 4 inches up here. Thankful that it wasn't the 15 inches that Fort Worth got today!!!
ReplyDeleteOld NFO,
DeleteComing home through Boerne on I-10, visibility several times went to near zero the rain was so hard. I wasn't driving, Little J was. It was very sporting with quite a bit of stupidity thrown in. I had the radar app on my phone on and was calling out distance to green from purple. As I told Sarge when he commented "...and you got some rain.', "Noah, got SOME rain."
Wonderful news on all fronts, juvat! May Our Lord watch over your little one...
ReplyDeleteThanks drjim. He certainly has so far.
Delete