Loving Life

Tomorrow Brielle has a chest Xray to make sure her lungs are still expanded and then they are going to lower her settings on the vapotherm! She will go down to 5 liters and when she is 4liters or lower they can start introducing the bottle. Her blood gases are the lowest they have been! 41! Thats great! They like them between 45-55. She is usually high 50's and upper 60's. Showing them she wants those prongs off! This morning Kathy took her out to play and while she was sucking on her nuc she dropped a few drops of milk in her mouth so she can start to get used to the suck swallow breath. Next week when she gets on the lower setting Kathy said she would like to try to give Brielle just a nipple from a bottle and just drop milk in it so she doesnt get too overwhelmed on alot of milk. Since she sucks on her nuc like a banchy, she might try to take the bottle in one gulp! A bunch of nurses have predicted that :)

They may do one more ECHO before her last MRI or it might just be her MRI before she goes homne. The MRI shows more than the ECHO does anyway and we cant do anything about it if more pop up anyways. Its just putting her thru another test. Xray of lungs in the morning and she gets her 3 2month big girl shots :( She will be a trooper! Shes been poked and proded so much and often already, shes got this! She will have another eye test next week. He isnt too concerned but being this premature, she could turn for the worst so quickly that he just wants to watch it closely. AGREED!

She had her 8 week developmental review yesterday. The PT comes in and just watches all her cares and watched me hold her and her being fed. She was amazed at how well Brielle tolerates her feedings. She very very seldom spits up anything. She gets the hiccups regularly tho. She loved how often she smiled while just laying by me and when I talked to her. She loved how she would sigh to catch her breathing and slow herself down. She even stayed to just watch her after she was done with the appointment. She gave me a compliment I was quite pleased with. She said to me "Did you know that you were going to be a natural mother and caregiver?" And I think I gave her that look and she said "I mean you know what she needs and you just do it to make her comfortable and settle nicely." I thought that was nice. Sometimes its hard to feel like a mom up there. But now that we can get her out and bathe her by ourselves it more of an independece feeling. So when shes crabby we are figuring out why and her noises and moves to make the change to make her happy. She said she is acting much like a 32 weeker and a 3 pounder!

Mom and Dad are going to give her a bath tonight! Grandpa Mike is coming up to hold. Grandpa Brad held yesterday. Mom had to get an order from the doctor to allow grandparents to hold her since she is on oxygen. He agreed to once a grandparent. We will weigh her before her bath tonight and see how much she is up. or down.