Ok, so since it's been several days since I've updated Mary's blog there's a lot to talk about. 

It started Saturday evening when we came to visit Mary.  The nurse told us that the number of apnea (stops breathing) and brachycardia (heart rate drops) episodes had increased significantly from that morning.  According to her estimates, she'd had about 20 spells in about a 3 hour time period that afternoon.  That's compared to the morning where she only had about 5 episodes.  As a result of the episodes they decided to do several things.  First, they prescribed Reglan to treat any reflux she might be having.  They also stopped increasing her feeds.  She'd been scheduled to increase by 0.5 mL at every other feeding.  Instead, they just kept the amount she was fed steady at 3 mL.  Another thing they did was increase her vapotherm (oxygen).  She'd been down at 2.0 LPM and 30% oxygen and they increased that to 3.0 LPM and 31% oxygen.  They had been scheduled to stop her antibiotics Saturday evening, but decided to continue them until they found out more about what was causing her episodes.  Finally, they scheduled a bunch of tests to be run Sunday morning.  They included an x-ray of her abdomen, and ultrasound of her head, and some blood work.  Basically, they're looking for anything that could be causing the episodes (brain bleeds, stomach issues, infections, etc.). 

We weren't able to get much info from the nurse on Sunday, so I came by early today to talk to the doctor.  According to her, all the tests came back ok.  There's nothing that seems to be causing the episodes so they're thinking it's because of her prematurity and that she just needs more time to grow out of it.  They have taken Mary off of antibiotics, but they now have her on Zantac and Reglan to help with any reflux/indigestion she might be having.  She is currently eating 5 mL of food every 3 hours (that's the same as a teaspoon).  Based on her weight, she needs to be eating 16 mL every 3 hours, so they're going to try increasing the amount she eats by 0.5 mL at every other feeding and see how she does with that.  Her vapotherm is still up pretty high; they have her at 3.0 LPM and 29% oxygen.  Dr. Bonifacio said they had to increase the vapotherm because the x-ray showed her lung capacity had decreased.  She said that's normal because premature babies don't have the support needed to maintain  their lung volume and that it should go back up over time.  Mary's weight is up to 2 lbs 4 ounces and her face is starting to look more full.  Hopefully she's able to keep that weight on now that they're feeding her.  Also, the nurse said she pooped on her own today for the first time since they started feeding her again.  So, sounds like things are better than they were the other day.  Of course, every day seems to have it's ups and downs so we're just glad that today is on it's way up!  Hopefully we'll have more of these days and she'll start to catch up to her brother and sister! =)