First full day at HSC

Today was Max's first full day at the HSC. The entire HSC team descended on him to make their initial assessments and produce short-run treatment goals. From Max's point of view, he was hard done by: his food was withheld (so he could tolerate assessment by physical therapists), he was repeatedly woken up and generally jostled. Carolyn tells me that Max was fairly stoic in the face of all of this turmoil, but it was tiring. When I arrived this afternoon I found Max fast asleep. Carolyn left and I took over. Max only woke up long enough to burrow into my armpit (his favorite way of snuggling when being held). Carolyn and I have each separately worried whether or not Max spends too much time asleep. I asked a doctor today if it was normal for babies not to cry. She said that when you can hear a baby, it's ready to leave HSC. But the other babies in Max's room were much louder. However, Max woke up quite hungry. He and I played for a while, but he was clearly interested in filling his belly. Once his feed started going in, he quite clearly started suffering pain from his reflux. He put on an impressive screaming demonstration. The nursing staff asked me to leave at their shift change at 7:00 PM, but I told them it was hard for me to leave my son when he was still in obvious pain. They very kindly applied all of their soothing skills to Max, and he quieted down. At least when I walked out of the door, he was quiet and content.