As I mentioned with the other two, we've been super busy lately with family visits so I've got a bit to update you on.

On Tuesday when we went to see Mary she was doing pretty good.  We noticed when we got there that she didn't have a feeding tube in her mouth.  Turns out she'd pulled it completely out so the nurse was going to have to put a new one in!  They were still increasing her feeds (she was up to 7.5 mL every 3 hours) and she was still on vapotherm (oxygen) to help with her apnea.  The nurse said she'd only had 2 bad episodes so far that day and that all the other times she'd been able to correct her breathing/heart rate on her own.  She weighed 2 lbs 3 ounces, but they noticed that she was retaining a lot of fluid so they started her on Lasix.  We expect her weight to drop some before it starts to increase again. 

On Wednesday the nurse told us Mary was having a much better day (which we love to hear!).  She was up to 9.5 mL of food every 3 hours and the goal (right now) is 18 mL every 3 hours.  Her weight was up to 2 lbs 5.4 ounces but as we noted already, the Lasix should take some of that weight off.  I got to change her diaper and check her temperature for the second time ever!  The nurse also told us that they were going to start doing eye tests on Mary next week to check her retina.  Apparently premature infants are prone to retinopathy (abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina) so they check them every week or so to make sure things are ok.  In some cases laser surgery is required and in other cases infants can be left blind.  We're praying for none of that to happen!

Today was an eventful day. They have increased Mary's feedings to 11.5 mL every 3 hours and she's doing well digesting them.  Her weight is up to 2 lbs 5.7 ounces (still waiting to see it drop some...she's still a bit swollen from the fluid retention).  When we arrived in the morning Mary's vapotherm (oxygen) had been lowered from a flow rate of 3.0 LPM to 2.5 LPM.  The nurse told us they were trying to get her flow rate down below 2.0 so they could switch her from vapotherm to a nasal canula (a different way of delivering the oxygen).  She had noticed that Mary seemed to be gagging on the feeding tube in her mouth and that was causing her heart rate to drop.  So, she wanted to switch Mary's feeding tube to her nose but couldn't do that unless Mary was off of the vapotherm.  Shortly after we arrived they tried lowering the flow rate to 2.0 and Mary did really well with that.  So, around 1pm they switched Mary from the vapotherm to a nasal canula.  They lowered the flow rate to 0.5 LPM to see how she'd do and told us if they needed to they could increase the flow rate and oxygen in the canula.  Once they had switched Mary to the nasal canula they were able to put the feeding tube in her nose.  This was great because not only did it help her with the whole gagging thing, but it also meant that I could finally hold her!  Our nurse today was great and let me hold Mary for about 5 - 10  minutes before her afternoon feeding!  It was nice to finally get to connect with her!  AND she did awesome the whole time she was out of the isolette!  Her oxygen saturation never dropped below 98% the whole time I had her!  We're hoping that she's turned the corner a bit and will start to get back on track with the whole breathing thing.  Paul also got to hold her briefly before the nurse put Mary back in the isolette!  So, a big day for Mary and for us!  We love seeing her progress like this and pray it continues! =)