James and Claire

What you are about to read is absolutely true.

My mother, who opts to stay on the pull-out couch rather than the unused queen bed, was woken up early (6:00 AM Texas time) by a phone call. The phone call was of little significance -- just a carpet salesman. However, now awake, my mother needed to use the restroom. Rather than take 10 steps to use the restroom in the suite, she opts to go down to use the restroom in the lobby...in her 'lawn mowing outfit' (see June 4 entry). Keep in mind, that while our hotel suite is fantastic, there is no grass in it. My mother would like me to add that the outfit was clean.

We are on the 14th floor. Somewhere around the 4th or 5th floor, my mother reports that it 'sounded like a tornado had formed in the elevator shaft' and that the elevator began rocking violently. The elevator came to a stop on the second floor. When the doors opened, an endless curtain of water gushing down the elevator shaft covered the open door. As she stepped through the water (again -- in 'the outfit'), she was greeted by emergency lighting. Fire engines and hotel employees swept her up in an evacuation.

Apparently, there was a water main break on the 4th or 5th floor, right in the area near the elevator...right at the exact moment she was passing by on her way to the lobby toilet. If I had a nickel for every time that happened to me... Anyway, the main elevators have been out all day. After taking the stairs to get back up, my mother found that they had opened the service elevators to the general public.

Up on the 14th floor, we were sound asleep, Oblivious to all of this. To hear her tell the tale in person is quite good. The written version does not do it justice. She will tell you how the thought of dying a violent elevator death went through her mind, yet somehow she was OK with that.

We went to see James and Claire and were pleasantly surprised when we got to the NICU. Their giant individual baby-saver machines had been replaced with a giant crib. A fancy medical crib. But the two of them were there, bundled to stay warm, breathing their own air, right next to each other.

Sherry and Christy dropped me off, so I could get some work done. They went back to the hospital to get some more baby time in.

While I was working , I got a call from Cathy (the birth mother's case worker who had been on vacation). I filled her in on everything and we will likely see her on Thursday. While I was chatting, the doctor from the NICU left me a message saying that they were going to try to bottle feed them today, and he mentioned 'talking about taking them home'. We talked to him and he said it might be as little as a week.

After their visit, Christy and Sherry did some shopping. I was being sort of grumpy because I had a lot of work to catch up on. I think they were hoping that getting some work done would cheer me up. They were right. I finally caught up to the present with the web site updates. I feel better now. They called and picked me up and we decided to go back to Bess's Bistro. I was torn between this ham and cheese dish or a hamburger. I ended up choosing ham over beef, which I should know better than to do. My mother got the burger, and it was a good one. Alas...

After dinner, back to the hospital went we. Christy and I settled in and were cuddling with them when Claire's heart rate dropped outside of the happy zone. A swift thump to the rear got it back up again. As the night wore on, it happened to both of them a couple of times. This is a condition called bradycardia (a slowing of the heart rate). It is expected from preemies, but it will likely set back their target release date. Now we are hearing maybe two more weeks. Nobody knows for sure.

Christy and I will be sad to see my mother go tomorrow morning. She has been an excellent guest and has provided us with many funny stories.

We are VERY excited because Nicholas and Karen (Christy's mom) are coming tomorrow afternoon. This is the longest we have ever gone without our little boy. We are in pain we miss him so badly.