Next Week: French Fries

The past few days have been business as usual for Lily.  Each morning we wake up and call the NICU to see how her night was, and each morning has been good news.  Her weight has been going up since Friday, six days in a row now.  Even after her first real poop, which I had the pleasure of changing the diaper (sorry, no pics), she went up a few grams.

Up to now Lily has been getting her nutrition in two ways, a feeding tube that goes into her nose and directly to her stomach, and a PICC line, which is essentially an IV (not a roman numeral 4) that can remain in for a longer term than a standard IV.  I would tell you what goes in the PICC line and what goes in the feeding tube, but it's only been explained to me about twenty times, so I'm not exactly sure yet, but the nourishment in the PICC line is there to fortify what she gets from the feeding tube (all you docs out there may feel free to explain by posting a comment).  The good news is, Lily has been tolerating her feedings so well that the PICC line was removed this afternoon and she is now getting all her eats directly into her belly.  Next week: french fries!

  

Additionally, for the past few days Lily has been one of a group of three babies being cared for by the same nurse, rather than one of two, another good sign of her progress that she does not require constant attention.

The last few days we have had her out of the isolette for an hour or two at a time twice a day, doing our Kangaroo Care, or skin-to-skin.  And in her 33rd week, she has already been able to take some milk from the breast, quite impressive since her tiny mouth can barely latch on to mom.  

Bottom line:  Lily is a star pupil, a rock star, a champion, and a scrappy little bugger.  I think we're going to have our hands full with this one!

Don't forget to breathe.