7w2d old and out of the incubator!!

Ella in a big girl crib at 7 weeks old exactly (36w2d gestation)

50 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 4 lbs 9 (+2 ounces)

It's been a busy weekend! On Saturday, Ella came out of her incubator and is in an open crib now. This is a HUGE milestone. It's a major step towards going home. She's still on the 3 liters of O2 and the doctors aren't planning on moving her down to less liters until more towards the end of the week. That's kind of frustrating because she needs to be off the high flow cannula before she can come home. Granted, she also needs to be taking ALL feedings from breast as well but the cannula is the thing I see as our major obstacle now.

On Saturday we were able to start breastfeeding again. She didn't nurse at all on Saturday, but she did for both feedings on Sunday. Then today, we were able to increase to 3 nursings a day and she didn't nurse at all for any of those sessions. :( It's frustrating that she doesn't nurse each time. They keep telling me it's TOTALLY normal and that most babies don't nurse as early as she did and even at the gestational age she is now (36 weeks), most babies still aren't breastfeeding. But it's still discouraging sometimes. Not that I'm going to stop trying or introduce the bottle, it just feels discouraging sometimes.