Good days

On Saturday Lorena got to meet a good friend, Traci Meier.  Lorena was on the nasal cannula 12 hours and CPAP for the remainder of the day on Saturday.  Her feedings were 12 milliliters every 3 hours.  She weighed 3 pounds 2 ounces on Saturday.  Below is a picture that Traci took of me holding her.  All in all, Saturday was a great day for her.  The nurses mentioned that she may be off the nasal cannula on Sunday.  We didn't go to Topeka on Sunday, so Dan called for an update.  Sunday was also a good day.  Lorena's feedings were increased to 16 milliliters every 3 hours.  She also was off the nasal cannula most of the day...meaning she was breathing completely on her own most of Sunday!

Time with Mom

With her nasal cannula in place

Lorena's Aunt Laura Clark went to Topeka with me Monday.  Lorena had another wonderful day.  Deb increased her feedings to 20 milliliters every 3 hours.  This is approximately 5 ounces of milk a day (hopefully that's calculated correctly).  Deb also stopped one of the IV nutritions (it looked kind of like milk) that was mainly to help fatten her up.  She is still getting the IV that looks like Gatorade (but they keep lowering the dose), and will be for a while.  Since they decreased her IV nutrition, Lorena will gain weight at a slower rate than the past few weeks.  They also are putting a fortifier in my breast milk to increase calories and help her grow.  Lorena weighed 3 pounds 4 ounces as of Sunday night!  Most importantly, Lorena's nasal cannula is completely gone!  She is breathing on her own 100% of the time with no breath support at all.  She was on a high flow nasal cannula the past few days off and on and the usual progression is to go to a low flow nasal cannula...but Lorena skipped over this step.  She is doing amazing according to Deb!  Lorena's head is looking less cone-like (since she doesn't have to wear a cap to hold the CPAP in place) and her nose looks less pug-like (since she doesn't have the nasal cannula pressure).  I love seeing her beautiful face.  She still does have her feeding tube which the nurses moved from her mouth to her nose on Sunday.  Mary Jo was our nurse on Monday.  She said that most babies will go home around 37 weeks gestation on average.  She thought Lorena would be coming home in 4-6 weeks (she will be 32 weeks on Friday).

Thanks to my mother-in-law Cindy for placing snaps on some of Lorena's preemie outfits.  Since Lorena still has the IV in her arm, she must wear outfits with special sleeves.  Below is a picture of Lorena in an onesie purchased and modified by Grandma Cindy.

Onesie from Grandma Cindy

Onesie from Grandma Cindy

she looked so peaceful with nothing on her face!  This is one of the hospital onesies