Tummy Time

Veronica enjoys tummy time.  As you may be able to see, she is still on the ventilator.  Hopefully they will extubate her tomorrow.  They have had to raise the vent settings a little bit which is why they haven't extubated her yet.  And while the tube down her throat probably doesn't feel so great, it allows her to breath easily and rest comfortably.

Veronica continues to be fed breast milk - although now its only 1cc every few hours.  But anytime she receives a transfusion, which is just about everyday, it delays her feedings as she cannot be fed two hours prior to or after a transfusion.  The milk is given to her through a tube in her mouth which goes directly into her stomach (you can see the tube in the photo above, with the orange flag).  It will be several more weeks before she can nurse or drink from a bottle.  She also gets fluids and nutrients through a central line in her left arm.  The IV in her right arm is for the blood transfusions, which as I mentioned earlier, occur almost daily.  Part of the reason for that is that they are constantly drawing blood from her and she isn't able to produce as much as they are taking out. 

In regards to weight gain, Veronica is steadily gaining.  Currently, she weighs 820 grams (1 lb, 13 oz) which is up from 570 grams at birth.  Its amazing to see what a difference 9 ounces makes.  The ideal is for her to gain 15 - 30 grams (.5 oz - 1 oz) per day. 

Tomorrow will be two weeks since the day Veronica was born - and her gestational age is only 26 weeks.  Its still hard for me to believe.  But day by day, week by week, we will get to where we need to be.