Day 111

It's been a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of week for both girls, but we're mostly excited about the steps forward.

Last week, Wren had done so well on the steroid she received that she was able to breathe on a cannula.  Well, once the drug wore off completely out of her system this week, she finally started laboring more in her breathing to where her pressure was increased enough that they decided to put her back on the CPAP.  This was in part because a chest x-ray showed that her lungs looked a little hazy and weren't quite inflating as well as they would like.  She is on CPAP now with a  pressure of 6.0 and around 40-50% oxygen.  We hope that this is a temporary thing and that she will begin moving forward again.

Avery was off the cannula and just breathing room air for a while, but slowly started desaturating more, and eventually needed to be back on the home-style cannula with a small amount of air (1/8 L).  Despite being back on the cannula, it still feels like she had a great week.  She consistently ate every bottle and did a great job with them since se first tried.  In fact, she has done so well this week that the doctors decided it was time to start getting her ready to go home.  (!!!)

By the end of the week, the doctors were talking about discharging her on Monday, depending on how she was looking.  To get ready for this, they wanted us to come spend a night in the NICU taking care of Avery on our own and managing all the equipment she will come home with to ensure we don't royally mess things up.  So, as I am writing, we are here tonight, in our NICU room that feels like your regular hotel room, getting ready to set up all of Avery's equipment.  There's not that much, just a Concentrator that plugs in to the wall and gives her the regular oxygen input on her cannula, a couple of oxygen tanks for when we need to move her around, and an Oximeter to monitor her saturation and heart levels.

As a final step before discharge, Avery also has to pass a car seat test, where she sits buckled into her car seat for an hour or so with monitoring equipment watching for labor of breathing, or her head slouching forward, or anything like that.  It seems like she did well on the test.  In fact, she seemed pretty bored by the whole thing and pretty much just slept.

She was also very awake today when we first came in. 

Is Avery excited to come home, or having second thoughts?  :

We are hopeful that Avery will get to come home this week.  Our kids are excited to spend more time with her.