Day 5

Today has been such a great day for our little girl. This morning we were able to syringe feed her for the first time! It was so great to be a part of feeding her!! The first feeding went SO well! She's a good little eater. She has had 2 more feedings since then and she has eaten well at those too. She falls asleep between sucks...ha! SO precious. SO frustrating. But I am just glad she is eating. The upside to falling asleep between sucks...the longer the feeding takes, the longer I get to hold her!

The doctor came in right after her second feeding this morning and spent some time talking with Luke & I. He is still saying that it is a combination of premature lungs and pneumonia. He is just a little perplexed as to where she would have gotten the pneumonia since I have not had any symptoms that would lead him to believe she got it from me. At this point, Luke and I are not too concerned about what it is because what it is starting to become "what it was". Her biliruben count was down to the normal range so our glow worm was able to come out from under the "baby tanning bed". Her skin color looks great and they will recheck this count tomorrow to make sure she is maintaining a normal count. They did not do another x-ray today due to the fact that she has been making so much progress. The doctor said that they will do one if she regresses but if not wait until closer to discharge just to make sure the pneumonia is gone. He decided to take her off the oxygen and just push room air through the nasal cannula. After about 30 minutes off of the oxygen her O2 saturation dropped down to 80%. She was then placed back on the oxygen. They are going to try to slowly ween her off, as she is only on a minimal amount. She is doing great so far with the weening. The doctor said that once she is weened completely off the oxygen they will work to ween her off the nasal cannula completely. Once she proves she can handle room air (without it being "pushed in") she will be able to be with us in our room until discharge. She will continue the antibiotics via IV until Thursday and at that point, if her breathing is under control, the only thing that would keep us here longer is establishing feeding. Speaking of feeding, the doctor also said that we can try to nurse up to 3 times a day and alternate with the syringe. We have to make sure she gets the nourishment and maintains her breathing at the same time. Overall, she is looking great and there is an end in sight!!

It was such a joy to get to hold her close so much today AND the day is not over yet!!! Not only have Luke and I gotten to hold her, our moms have too! They helped with her 3rd feeding while Luke and I took a nap. From what I hear, they bribed her to open her mouth and eat. I can only imagine the things she was promised. Two Grandmas...at the same time...we have some major damage control to take care of tonight :)

There are so many more thoughts that I want to share. So many things that I want to say. For now, I will just share some of the pictures from today. I think we may submit these pictures to the Guinness Book of World Records for the "most photographed 5 day old baby"!!















Today also brought something that this bow making mommy has been waiting since Thursday to be able to do...check out Madelyn's pink bow that I made her...

And these are just my favorites!

I look at that sweet little face, thinking about how less than a week ago I was posting about how she was wiggling around inside of me...it fascinates me in a way that I can't even begin to describe. I am in awe of God's creation...in love with His perfect design. How could you witness such a thing as this, and not believe??

*Kathryn