The World's Most Expensive Babysitting

Just to clarify, V, my post would have been titled "Suck Like a Champion Today", a clear homage to Notre Dame. Upon reflection, however, that title now seems inappropriate. The MVP's sucking much more closely resembles the 2009 USC Trojan football team, which is to say that sometimes he sucks really hard, but sometimes he barely sucks at all and it's generally impossible to predict which one is going to happen at any given time.

So V covered the big news that The MVP now has a third delivery option for his eight daily feedings (the others being bottle and gavage tube). More good news is that, since he can now nurse or eat from a bottle, the therapist suggested that we continue to mix it up after he gets home. That means I or the grandparents will get to feed him once per day to keep him flexible and keep mom from having all the fun.

Another big piece of news is that The MVP's crib has been upgraded again. His palatial new digs are quieter and more private in the corner suite next to a window, and his incubator has a more accessible top that can be raised or lowered to your arm level. Now, this could just be coincidence, but just three days ago we brought Viet Grandma's famous Pecan Tassies and Rum Cake for all the nurses. Yesterday, fancy incubator with hydraulic height adjustment AND a mountain view. You draw your own conclusions. All I'm saying is that greasing the nurses certainly can't hurt.

Ill gotten gains.

V and I have settled into our routine a bit more. We've scaled back the amount of time we cover in the ICU from about 15 hours per day, which was unsustainable, to about 8 or 9 timed around when we know he's going to be awake. The first week we were here, the nurses kept telling us to go home and sleep. They told us we should take advantage of the world's most expensive babysitting and go catch a movie or something. Yesterday, it occurred to us that that made a lot of sense, so we did something we haven't been able to do for the last 9 months, and may not be able to do for the next 9: dinner at our very favorite sushi restaurant.

Aw, yeah. It's about to go down.

Katsu-ya isn't exactly an unknown gem but, trendy or not, it has some of the very best sushi creations Southern California.  Their Spicy Tuna on Crispy Rice and Baked Crab Rolls are mandatory ordering every time.  We also ordered roasted shishito peppers, super toro, yellowtail sashimi with jalepenos, and sundry sushi items.

This stuff is the shishito.

It was nice to have a "date night", though we decided dinner and a movie would be too much.  The sushi was nearly as much of a treat for me as for V, because for the last nine months I'd been boycotting Katsu-ya out of solidarity to her plight.

Get in my belly.

Today, we are much rejuvenated as we return to the hospital.  By request, here are some pics of the "munchkin" from yesterday.