Almost at full feedings

Hi all,

Another great day at the Marquette NICU. So many good things have been happening down here in the last couple of days that I'm constantly looking for wood to knock on. Today Willow was up to 3 lbs. 11 oz. She gained 90 grams from yesterday. Again this may be too much weight in one day and it's looking more likely that they'll need to put her on a dieretic. That may happen in the next couple of days. It doesn't seem to be a big deal though, and the dieretic will be easier on her system than the Lasex that they have been giving her.

This morning Willow got her first "tub" bath. I unfortunately missed it, but she was so cute that they pulled out the poloroid and snapped a couple of pictures. Willow's nurse, Karen, only put her bum in the tub, she didn't want to over stimulate her. Karen said as soon as she hit the water she could see this look in
Willow's eyes that was very thoughtfull.
Karen could tell that Willow was really trying to figure out what this wet stuff was on her bottom. I guess she handled the whole experience very well.

They upped Willow's feedings 3 times today. She went to 23, then 25, and at 9:30 tonight they were going to 28 mls per feeding. This is going to be very close to full feedings, so hopefully tomorrow she will get her PICC line out. That will make me very happy for two reasons. For one it's showing remarkable progress with her feeding and growing, and for two, the picc line is what caused her last infection. So get that thing out of there, and it's one less foreign intrusion in her body.

Willow is still doing great on her cannula. They dialed down the setting slightly
while I was there tonight. Her nurse tonight was even thinking that in a few days she may not need any breathing support at all. Won't that be a wonderful thing.

Last night Willow's nurse, Amber, was talking about how it's going to be a race to the door between Willow and another premie that is almost exactly Willow's gestational age and size. The other girl was born at 31 weeks right when Willow was turning 31 weeks. Anyway it wasn't until today that I really thought about the fact that Willow is going to be coming home. It actually gave me flutters in my stomach. I always new that Willow was going to be OK, and eventually she would be coming home, but with her "history" it wasn't really at the front of my mind. Now I'm starting to see a perfect little baby, and I know that sometime in the not to distant future we'll all be back in Houghton and have this whole experience behind us. When that happens, everyone that has been wanting to see Willow can come on up and have a good time with our little miracle. Goodnight to all.

Josh