5th time's a charm!

I always thought the old adage said "third time's a charm"...I guess for us it's really the 5th time. Yesterday at 1pm they decided to go for try #5 at taking Riley off the C-PAP. When we went in last night after work she was doing really well, much better than the last few times we saw her after moving to the nasal cannulas. Pam called in this morning to see how the night went, and was pleasantly surprised to find out she was still doing really well. This morning they moved her feedings down to 30min from 2hrs, and she has been handling the full stomach very well. The next step will be to get her to take to a bottle. We were hoping to get to try that tonight, but she is still breathing a little too hard to be able to try it. They said it will take just the right conditions to get her going on the bottle, she has to be breathing a little slower, be awake enough to concentrate on sucking, and she has to give "signals" that she's ready (sucking motions, sticking tongue out, etc.) And even then, she'll probably not do full feeds on the bottle, since it takes a lot of energy at first, so her feedings will still be primarily through the feeding tube. She's still gaining weight, up to 8lb 2oz last night.

Since she is spending more and more of her time awake, they have told us to bring in more toys to keep her occupied. So tonight we brought in the mobile we had bought for her crib. She has also been spending a few hours a day in her bouncy seat, which she really seems to enjoy. The mobile should help stimulate some neck movement and get her to look up more, which should also help flatten her head out a little more, since she's still got a bit of an egg-head from laying on the side all the time.

Here's a photo of Pam holding her last night...sound asleep and on the nasal cannulas!


Here's her crib in the NICU with the mobile we brought in.