Change of Plans

A couple of hours before going to the hospital today to pick up Jillian to bring her home, we received a call from Jillian's doctor at the NICU. She said that because Jill hasn't gained weight at a good rate the past few days, that she didn't think it would be wise to send her home today. Although we agree with her decision, we are understandably dissappointed. We have to remind ourselves that she is weeks (or months) ahead of schedule, so another week or so of waiting is still much better than what was expected.



Basically, Jill has been gaining weight slower than she should be. She should be steadily increasing her weight on a growth curve consistent with babies of her size and age. Instead, she has put on a few ounces here and there, but is falling behind her expected growth rate. Rather than sending her home with us only to take the risk of having her return to the NICU a few days later, we are going to have to wait until she can consistently increase her weight.


Judy and I are planners to the extreme (especially Judy). We like to have our schedules planned out days (or weeks) in advance. We have had to be more flexible the last 6+ weeks than we are accustomed to being. I had made preparations to take most or all of the coming week off of work to be at home for Jill's first week at home. Now I am looking ahead to the next week knowing that there are a couple of critical training days at work that I need to attend. Everything has worked out well since Jill's birth, so I should rest assured that God has it all planned out for the best, even better than Judy and I could plan.


Please pray that Jill will start to put on more weight and will be able to come home soon. We are getting more anxious as that day approaches.