Preemie Life - Day 13

Today I watched them pull the PICC out of Cheetah's head.  The worst part, getting the tape off her hair.  Apparently they used to shave preemie heads before they put the lines in.  Then when they pulled the line the babies had a nice little bald spot.  Heaven forbid they have to do more then one line, apparently some kids got a little patchy.  Now they leave the hair on, which works out fine until you have to pull it out.  Kelly the nurse practitioner told me, "You are totally welcome to stay, but I am going to warm you, she will cry."  I asked if it hurt to pull the PICC.  She said, "Nope, it is the hair pulling that get's the kids.  We have stuff to loosen the glue from the hair, but there is always a little pulling.  I'll go get some sugar water to make it go down a little easier."  And I just had to laugh because isn't it funny how from birth on we are taught that food makes everything a little more tolerable.  I can attest to the fact that I've been consuming more than my fair share of deserts.  It is hard to feel guilty though when you are under this kind of stress.  I'm down 16lbs since Cheetah's birth though so sugar consumption is probably the only place I am up.  Cheetah definitely cried during the hair pulling, but the pulling of the PICC itself took less then a second and didn't get a single cry out of the girl.  Then Kelly covered her head with iodine and as she rubbed it off Cheetah fell into a deep sleep.  The girl reminds me of myself.  Cry yourself out over the initial pain and then fall asleep exhausted, so deeply that maybe when you were eleven when your baby sister and you locked yourselves out of the house, and you broke your arm, your sister told your mom she thought you were dead because you were sleeping so soundly in the lawn chair she couldn't rouse you for hours.  Anyway I'm excited for the PICC to be gone.  One less thing coming out of my daughter's body, one more step toward normal, healthy, one more step toward coming home.