We're getting places...

Ella's hands, 6 weeks old

Ella's feet, 6 weeks old

48 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 4 lbs 7 (-1.5 ounces)

It's been a busy two days for Ms. Ella. On Wednesday night, Ella was in about 60% O2 so they put her back up to 3 liters of pressure. They did an echocardiogram to see if she had any extra pressure in her lungs and found that she didn't. They also saw that the PDA duct had closed in her heart, whoo hoo. There is something else in her heart that of course I can't remember what it's called. It's minor the doctor said and at this point, isn't causing her problems but could potentially in the future. Sigh. Hopefully not. And of course I'm a dinkis and can't remember what it's called...

On Thursday there were no changes made. She stayed the same weight of 4 lbs 7 oz and the pressure stayed the same. Today, her O2 has been about 35-40% and she's still on the 3 liters of pressure. It sounds like they're going to keep her there for a while and very slowly wean her down as they can. However, very exciting news today--we can start breastfeeding again, up to twice a day AND she's doing to be weaned out of the incubator into a real crib!! Hurray! The incubator has to be 29 degrees (celcius) with her able to maintain her body temperature and when I called at 7:00 PM tonight, it was at 30 degrees. They'll check her temp every 3 hours and bring it down a little each time. So by tomorrow, I'm pretty confident she'll be out of it. I'm soo excited! 

The bummer thing about the O2 is that the doctor told me today (or was it yesterday? I can't remember) that they don't expect to see these kind of lung issues in a baby born 29 weeks gestation. She said that these are the kind of issues they see in a baby born at 23 weeks gestation. Great huh? I can't TELL you how THRILLED I was to hear that <<sarcasm>>. That's very scary and frustrating for me. At this point, it would be an absolute SHOCK if she didn't come home on oxygen support and need specialists for quite some time. But, if that's the case, I suppose we'll cross that bridge and deal with it as we've dealt with everything else. I'm going to do my best as her mom to help her believe that no matter what issues she may have with her lungs, she can do anything she wants. I've seen stories of babies with extreme lung disease with severe problems all their life running track in high school. If that's what she wants, you bet your butt I'll help her do it! I will NOT be one of those moms who says she "can't do it" because of her lung problems! 

Olivia, we had a movie night tonight

Tonight Olivia and I went to her buddy Aiden's 2nd birthday party and then came home and had a movie night. We watched The Polar Express, which is a newer movie and I think is just fabulous. :) We had a lot of fun, especially since mama isn't usually home at night!