Earlier today, Amy mentioned that this is our first Christmas in our own home. Not to be outdone, Becca decided she wanted her own room at the NICU this afternoon — and she wants her parents to dress up special whenever they visit her.

When we went today for our 2:30 holding time (it was my day for holding), we had to wait a while to go back since the nurses were drawing blood from a baby. When we went back, we found out it was our baby. They had decided to run extra blood tests because they had just gotten back results from a weekly nasal swab culture showing that Becca’s nose is “colonized” with MRSA, the hospital-care associated staph bacteria (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

She hasn’t shown any signs of being infected — she’s still breathing great and gaining weight — but they’re looking at her c-reactive protein levels (high levels can indicate there’s inflammation or infection) and blood cell count (particularly “bands,” which are precursors to white blood cells, I believe). They’ll also do a blood culture, which I think takes a couple days. (While we were there, the c-reactive protein test came back, showing she has normal levels. They’ll call about the blood cell counts. [Later in the evening they called to say her blood cell counts are normal.])

Because MRSA is easily spread among patients by health care workers, and because it’s dangerous for people with weakened immune systems (preemies definitely qualify), Becca is being moved to the Isolation Pod–I-Pod–to reduce the risk of spreading the bacteria. Benefits: privacy, quiet, one-on-one nursing care. Dis-benefits: we have to wear gloves and a sterile hospital robe whenever we visit. We can still visit whenever we want. She’ll be in isolation till she’s discharged. (In the photo at top and bellow, I’m not wearing gloves because they forgot to give them to me.)

Naturally we weren’t expecting this change, but we’re thankful that Becca still appears to be very healthy. She’s in God’s hands just as much as she was last week when she didn’t have MRSA in her nose. And Christmas time reminds us that God doesn’t ask us to face anything that He was unwilling to face for Himself. It reminds me of Dorothy’s Sayers’ jarring words:

[F]or whatever reason God chose to make man as he is — limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death — He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it was worthwhile.

And here’s a photo of Amy holding Becca yesterday (we love the hat!):

And by they way, it snowed here today! Yesterday it was in the mid-70’s; today it got below freezing and we have a nice covering of the good stuff. It’ll stay cold all night, so we’re set for a white Christmas.