Finally, an update

Pictures: Leah holding Daddy's finger and Quin holding Leah's hand.

It is hard to believe that it is already Sunday. The last week has been so surreal, I can't get over how much has changed in such a short time.

Leah is doing very well. She has been taken off all oxygen support as of Wednesday. So, she didn't even have to have it for long. They gave her medicine on Tuesday to strengthen her lungs and that has been working great. She is also getting caffeine each day to stimulate her lungs.

She was under the "lights" briefly for jaundice, but quickly moved through that as well. She is continuing to test well and hasn't had them on since Thursday.

She continues to test well on everything else. Really, the focus now is just putting on weight. She is taking breast milk through a tube in her nose and the amount she takes is going up every other feeding (feedings are every 3 hours) as long as she tolerates them. As of last night, she is just about back up to her birth weight of 3 lbs. (just as expected she lost a little and has been working on putting it back on).

Her nurse today, Ashley, gave her a bottle and she did take about 5 ccs through the bottle. Not a lot, but she did some. She has been practicing all week with a "binky" so they will continue to try a bottle as they see signs that she is interested.

You will see in the pictures that we get to take her out and hold her, but she has to be bundled up so that her body temperature stays up. Once she gets some more fat on her, she will be able to hold her body temperature.

We also found out that she will get to start wearing clothes in the next couple of days. She still has a line going into her belly button that is giving her fluids, but as her feedings continue to increase, she will get to have the line removed. So, thanks to all of you that have already given us "preemie" clothes. They have been washed and put in her drawer at the hospital so that she will be very well dressed when she has the opportunity.

She is has moments where she is super alert and you can sit and talk with her for a while. It seems that she is starting to recognize voices. Leah is also great fun to watch sleep. She must be having sweet dreams because you can catch her smiling quite a bit.

As for me, I am feeling better day by day. I got to come home on Friday. I got the option of staying another day, but was definitely ready to sleep more than an hour at a time. I came home with blood pressure medicine, because my blood pressure is still fluctuating. That medicine has made me feel a ton better. Headaches are not as frequent and not as bad. The swelling has gone down drastically. I must have looked horrible at the beginning of the week. I keep running into nurses at the hospital that I don't remember, but they keep telling me how much better I look. I am still pretty swelled, so it must have been really, really bad. My incision is a minor issue compared to all of this other stuff.