Gains and a Loss

Veronica has made significant gains with her breathing over the past few days.  Yesterday, when she trialed off CPAP she managed to stay off for almost 11 hours and today she was off for 6 hours.  We can't wait to see how long she will be off tomorrow and the next day and long for the day that she will be off for good.  She is growing and getting stronger everyday but still has a little ways to go.

While Veronica is trialing off of CPAP, the doctors have ordered that she not be fed by mouth.  The reason for this is that it takes too much effort for her to breath and drink from a bottle at the same time.  We tried it yesterday and I could see what a struggle it was.  Veronica began desatting and at one point she stopped breathing.  The nurse immediately gave Veronica oxygen and the event was quickly resolved.  It was a little disheartening but I was assured it was all part of her being a preemie.  Sometimes, although only briefly, I forget how young she was when she was born.  And although she is 37 weeks now, she is nowhere near being in the same position as babies who are born at 37 weeks.  Had she been born today, we probably would have never seen the inside of the NICU.  We would never have known what CPAP was and we would never had to worry about desats, bradys or apnea episodes.  Yesterdays episode reminded me of how fragile Veronica was, and continues to be.  But today, we were reminded of how blessed we are that Veronica is doing as well she is.  Another baby in the NICU, the baby directly across from Veronica, was not so lucky and passed away today.  Although we don't know the details, and of course the nurses are not able to share, we cannot help but feel terribly saddened by this loss.  We thank God for Veronica's health as our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.