2 Weeks Old

Ava is two weeks old today. It's hard to believe, not because it has gone by fast, but because it feels like this journey has already been much longer than that. It is amazing how drastically life changes when your baby is born so prematurely. I don't think there is a single element of my life that is the same anymore. A typical day for me consists of pumping every 2-3 hours, visiting Ava around noon when the NICU opens, trying to find a car to buy, squeezing in errands and going back to visit at 7:30. Trying to work around pumping and a three year old has proven to be quite the challenge, but right now I have my mom here to help and she has pretty much taken over Travis care, along with making sure I have food in my belly and a clean house. She is amazing and I can't even THINK about how I am going to survive when she has to go home.

As far as an Ava update goes, she is still fighting an infection. It is now in her lungs, PICC line, blood and her incision. The particular bacteria that she has tends to take 2-3 weeks to clear up so this is frustrating and upsetting. The good news is that she still has not acted sick. She is still on the ventilator but she is mostly breathing over it and she is not requiring any extra oxygen right now. The new doctor that is on agrees with me that she is going to need to be pushed more to get off and she is hoping to extubate her in the next day or two. I really hope to see that happen. Yesterday she was on full feeds but she started throwing up, probably just from not feeling great from the infection, so they backed down a little bit on her feeds but she is still close to full feeds. She now weighs 2lbs 11oz. Overall she looks great. She really loves to lay on her belly so they have been mostly keeping her that way. I don't think there is much else to report about her. It's just a day at a time and our main goals right now are to kick the infection and to get rid of the vent. I think once those two things are solved, she will be able to move forward much more quickly.