Moving right along...

I had a wonderful visit with Ava tonight. She is such a beautiful little girl, I just can't get enough of her! Today she is 32 gestational weeks. This means she gets to start eating by mouth! Tomorrow will be the first day that I get to breastfeed her "for real", although we have been practicing for a while now.

Ava has made quite a few steps in the right direction. First of all, she is now 3lbs 5oz! She really is filling out and looking so much more like a "real baby" now. She does not seem so fragile and she is fitting so well in her preemie clothes. Dressing a little girl, MY little girl, is SO much fun! Her feeds are also being gavage fed now, which means they go in with gravity, which only takes a few minutes. It's fantastic that her tummy is able to tolerate this as she is moving towards oral feeds. Her liter flow was decreased to 2 liters today which is also a great step! She has been tolerating that fine and is still only requiring 21% oxygen (room air) most of the time. And last but not least, she is regulating her temperature completely on her own now so she no longer needs her isolette to keep her warm. She should be making that transition into a crib very soon! What a big girl! Without further adieu....PICTURES!