Funny Stories & Good News

Brynn isn't a fan of her ear muff.  Although it's supposed to help reduce noise so she doesn't get totally over-stimulated in her new environment, the first day she started wearing it, she got her hand under it and flipped all the way across the incubator.  Funny girl!  Look out Daddy--she's already as opinionated as her Mommy!

She also has opinions about all those annoying tubes in her throat.  After she kept grabbing at them and nearly pulling them out, the nurse put a little rolled up piece of cloth in her hand to keep her fingers busy.  She liked it at first, waving it around like a little baton--but soon realized it wasn't helping her get those pesky cords out.  She dropped the cloth (and refused to grasp it again) in favor of pulling on more "effective" things.

All around, Brynn is rockin' the place.  The "honeymoon" period they talked about is over and after taking a few steps backwards, she's now starting to steadily progress again.  She's already graduated from 1 cc of breast milk once every 12 hours to 4 ccs once every 4 hours!  The nurse kindly informed me that Brynn left her a gigantic "present" in her diaper this morning and the Doctor said she was VERY pleased with how Brynn's digestive system was doing.  She said that Brynn is eating remarkably well for one so young.  One weird thing about feeding her, though, is that prior to every input of breast milk, the nurse has to suck OUT anything that might still be in there.  She did it twice before putting food back in and since it was empty, we knew Brynn was digesting everything alright.  Interesting.  I wonder if that feels weird to have your innards get sucked out.  Either way, Mommy's good home cooking has helped her to gain almost an ounce so far.  

She also had a brain scan yesterday to make sure none of the blood vessels in her brain have weakened or burst.  So far, she looks fantastic and has no internal bleeding!  (A BIG whew)

Most exciting for me, though, she made some improvement in her lungs.  After stepping back to a more automatic (and less stressful) ventilator a couple days after birth, her blood-oxygen levels have been really good, but each time they try to wean her off the ventilator, she gets upset.  Today was the first time they've stepped it back a bit without her getting stressed out.  After another blood-oxygen test to see if she was REALLY okay with the change, she was still going strong!  Woo hoo!  This makes me SUPER excited because when she goes back to the other ventilator and can maintain stability, I will get to hold her on my chest and rock her for an hour per day.  I can hardly wait!

Love you all.  Your prayers are certainly working!

~Natalie