4 Pounds!!!

Day 78

Emma had a great weekend!  She is now 1810 grams, which is just about 4 pounds!!  Her weight gain has been perfect - about 1-2 ounces each day, which is just where she should be.  She is still getting 32 mL every three hours and has been doing great.  Just one teeny little spit-up today and that was it.  We're told preemies are also very likely to have reflux issues as they get older, so we're keeping an eye out for that.  But so far, so good!  Her feeds are now given to her by gravity feed.  Instead of being given through a pump over half an hour, they are just held in a syringe above her head and allowed to flow through using gravity - not too quickly, so it still takes about 15-20 minutes, but it's another step forward for her. 

Emma is still on the CPAP at 25% oxygen.  Her last blood gas this morning was "spectacular" (according to the nurses) and good enough for her to be moved onto the nasal cannula, but they are giving her another day or two on the CPAP just to keep from pushing her too quickly.  Going to the gravity feeds is more of a challenge for her than the pump, so they will give her some time to get used to that.  We are moving forward and do not want to take any steps backward! 

Similarly, now that Emma is over 1800 grams she is "eligible" to be moved into the open-air crib.  They are also going to hold off on this for a couple days to let her continue to improve and get stronger.  We are very excited that Emma is meeting these wonderful milestones, and more than happy to be patient and take things slowly so we don't move backward.