For anyone who follows along on Instagram or the blog fb page (using the horrible blogger app on my phone, so hyper linking those no es posible) this part might be old news but I gotta put it here, you know? Gotta have it all in one place-ish.
Basically the story so far is this: incredibly healthy and robust preemie girl sails through her nicu time, putting a smile on everyone's face and generally making the world a better place just by being.
But underneath all that, the nitty gritty is that it is still really, really hard. Leaving your baby and driving home for the evening is hard. Leaving your house and allowing your selfless, competent friends to manage the day to day everything while you're gone is hard. Not seeing your other kids during their best hours of the day is hard. Not knowing how each day is going to go, not knowing when it will be over, not knowing which nurse you'll have when you walk in for the day, not knowing if suddenly after all this progress she will have some huge set-back....all of it is really hard.
But overall, in light of everything that has happened and everything that could happen, things are going beautifully. She has gone from being in an isolette with a bili blanket and a full iv with constant monitoring of vital signs to being in an open air crib with no bili treatments, no IV fluids, no medications, no labs, and only three tiny leads on her torso connected to a small memory monitor which I can turn off and unhook whenever I want.
Not too shabby for nicu-land, y'all. Not too shabby. Oh! And her weight! Born at 3lbs 13oz, she is now up to 4lbs 12oz- almost a full pound! That is a lot, especially considering the percentage of her size that has increased in less than three weeks, even after the initial normal newborn weight loss.
So the way our nicu decides someone is ready to be discharged is that they have to meet 3 basic milestones- managing their oxygen levels and heart rate, regulating their body temp, and eating without getting too tired to gain weight. So far we are two out of three on those. Woo hoo! All we have to do is increase her eating stamina and we are outta here.
So if you would like something specific to pray for, there it is. She's got the mechanics down great. Suck/swallow/breathe: check! It's just she's so small and young that the energy it requires to nourish herself is greater than what she has available. I mean she would still be getting 100% of her calories from my placenta if she were on the inside, so it makes sense that this is kinda hard for her. So let's pray that she gets stronger and it gets easier and the we can go hoooooome!
Thank you for all your prayers and support. Now please enjoy another unformatted cell phone pics because: blogger app=terrible. Muwah! (That's a kissing sound)