Test of Stress

By the lack of posts the past eight days, you can see just how busy we have been. You can say it has been quite stressful for the both of us. Not because of how Jillian is doing (she is doing well), but because of how jam packed our days are. I (Bryan) took one of those on-line stress tests that quiz you on events that have taken place in your life in the past year (e.g. started new job, moved to a different location, had a baby, etc.) and then gives you a score. A score of 150 indicates you have a 50/50 chance of getting an illness due to stress. A score over 300 indicates you have a 90% chance of getting sick. My score was 418…and this test didn’t even ask if I have a temperamental 2-year old or a baby in the NICU.



A typical weekday for me consists of working from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (my workday is pretty crazy right now). I then rush over to the hospital. Judy and I eat a quick dinner in the hospital cafeteria. We then head up to see Jill. I stay until 7:00 p.m. and then head home to watch Katelyn until Judy gets home around 8:30 p.m. (luckily we found a good babysitter from church to help out three nights per week). Then we put Katelyn to bed. Then we quickly get ready for the next day…Repeat sequence.


Jill is doing pretty well. She has increased her feedings steadily since we last wrote. She still isn’t excited about drinking from the bottle. It is probably an aversion to having anything in her mouth after having had a couple of tubes down her throat for 2+ weeks. Whatever she doesn’t drink from the bottle gets inserted directly into her stomach through a tube in her nose. Like most CDH babies, Jill has a problem with reflux.


We have added new photos and videos on our Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/3apples).