11/17 Prematurity Awareness Day

Today was a good day.


A full tummy...on Mommy's lap...what could be better?!

My friend, Shauna, watched the boys for me this afternoon (thank you thank you thank you thank you) so I could visit Phoebe for a few hours. After getting her report and spending some time at her bedside, her nurse asked me if I wanted to see what she thought of a bottle. My reply was, "Absolutely!" Phoebe is still a little young to move to regular bottle feedings, but she does seem to be ready to start trying it out, and I was thrilled to get to be there for it. Full disclosure: this same nurse gave Phoebe her first bottle yesterday, but this was MY first time bottle feeding her. So, this one counts more. :-) Anyway, yesterday Phoebe was able to get about 15 ml down before getting too tired and finishing her meal via her tube. With me today, she got about 24 ml down before getting tired and got her last 10 ml through the tube. I gotta be honest: it was so exciting! And she did wonderfully! No "As" or "Bs"... no "desats"...she remembered to breathe while also sucking and swallowing. What a great "first!" She had been a bit constipated so they gave her some medicine to help with that and the medicine definitely worked...all over her! So I got to change a very messy, stinky diaper. Who knew a tiny, little preemie could make that much of a mess??!! Her brothers would've been so proud.

Overall, Phoebe is still having a  pretty good preemie course. Her murmur does seem to have reopened, which is disappointing, and it will have to be watched. But so far she is asymptomatic, so her nurses encouraged us not to worry too much about it. Of course, that's impossible, but it's still good encouragement. :-)

Chris is going to get confirmation on this when he visits her tonight, but when I called at 9:00 pm to check on her, Phoebe's nurse said she was just above 4 lbs. This would be a nice little gain from yesterday and would also mean that soon they may start trying to see if she can maintain her body temperature in an open crib. So many little and big things have to be achieved before we can even ask about her coming home, and that's one of them. We know we have several more weeks to go before we can bring her home, but it's exciting to see her moving in the right direction.

Oh, I almost forgot: I got to talk about my little preemie on WORD-FM for a few minutes this afternoon for their segment on National Prematurity Awareness Day. That was really fun...and I loved the chance to share the story of how our friends and family have lifted us on their shoulders and carried us through the last 3 months.

So...this has been a good day. We've been told that we should celebrate the good days so we can weather the bad ones, and that's what we're doing. What a blessing this good day has been.


PS: Please join me tonight in praying for the friend of a friend, who is currently in the hospital trying to stop pre-term labor. She's 31 weeks and carrying twins. Thanks!