A Better Day

Easter Sunday was a difficult day for us.  Veronica's infection caused her to have frequent "bradys", or a drop in her normal heart rate that often requires intervention from the nurses.  She also had numerous "desats", when her oxygen saturation level would fall.  The doctors deliberated about the possibility of intubating her, but ultimately decided it wasn't necessary at this point.  When we went to sleep, we had the phone close by but prayed we wouldn't receive any calls in the middle of the night.

Today is a completely different day.  While Veronica still has an infection (for which she is being treated) she appears to be more stable.  The bradys and desats have decreased.  She had a stool (always a good sign!) and they have take her off all of the bililights, which were being used to treat her jaundice.  This also means that she no longer needs to wear a special shield over her eyes and allows us to see more of her beautiful face.  She continues to gain weight and is currently 650 grams, up from 571 grams at birth.  And the best news of all, as far as I am concerned, is that she is able to resume feedings - she will be getting 2 ccs of breast milk every three hours.  The milk will go through a tube in her mouth that goes directly to her stomach.  Its not a lot of milk, but every little bit of breast milk that we can get into her counts.  It will be weeks, if not months before Veronica can nurse or even drink from a bottle.  But this is a step in the right direction as  the benefits of breast milk for preemies are astounding.

We are all cautiously optimistic.  We know there will be more setbacks along the way.  But we are so thankful for the good days and pray that the good days consistently outnumber the more challenging ones.