Ava is 55 days old today! That is almost two months. Wow. My little girl is getting bigger and bigger each and every day. I am so proud of her progress. She struggled a little bit with all the changes that were made quite rapidly but she seems to be adjusting now. She passed her first "step" of oral feedings, which was taking one feed per shift for 48 hours. Now she is moving up to 2 feedings per shift, which is half of her feedings. I will be there for 3 of the feedings today which means she will breastfeed for 3 and take a bottle for one. She nurses GREAT! It makes me so happy since Travis never successfully nursed. I enjoy that bonding time that I never got with him. Even bottle feeding a baby can be bonding, but with Travis it was torture for both of us and that makes me really sad.
Ava weighed in at 4lbs 5oz last night. She has steadily been gaining about an ounce per day for the last few days! So we know she can eat, we know she can grow. Literally the only thing holding her back is her breathing. As soon as she masters that, she can come home!! I have NO idea how long it will take her. Could be a couple weeks, could be longer. We will just have to wait and see. Currently she is only on 2 liters and usually only needs minimal oxygen if any, so hopefully it won't be too long! We are SO ready for her at home!!
2 comments:
Awesome job, Ava!!
Look at her cheeks filling out--she's going to have big fat baby jowls soon! This was the part of Jim's NICU stay when I started to get extremely antsy: when there was just one big thing left for him to accomplish and there was absolutely no way to know when he'd finally accomplish it. I hope for your sake that it's sooner rather than later for Ava that she gets the respiratory stuff down, but I have a feeling she'll do it when she darn well pleases. She's a sassy one already. :)
I am also SO happy to hear she's nursing like a champ!!! I know just how much nursing means when you're a NICU parent, and I'm so glad this time around you're able to have such a great bonding experience with her around feeding!
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