Big girls wear clothes

Early Monday morning I called to check in on Briana and the nurses told me that she was doing great and that they had dressed her. I was excited to see her in some clothes and brought the preemie clothes we had for her. When I made it to the hospital the nurses had put Briana in newborn clothes and she was swimming in them. The nurse helped me take the clothes off and I got to hold her for a while. Afterward we put her in one of the preemie outfits and she looked so adorable! It was almost surreal to see her in some clothes because she seemed so grown up!

Also today Briana was taken off the si-pap and placed onto a cannula. This is a huge step in the right direction. They are slowly going to start weening her from the cannula and so far she has only had one spell. The cannula is much easier on Brianna's nose and there is less air being pushed into her nose which makes it easier for her to hear. When I got to hold her today I think she was rather surprised by all the sounds that she could hear around her. Every beep from the other monitors would catch Brianna's attention, it was so cute to see her reactions.

Briana has also been tolerating her feedings quite well. The doctors have increased her feedings from 4 cc to 6 cc with little to no residual. The nurse and I also discussed that int 2 days Briana will be a gestational age of 32 weeks. This means that she should have her sucking reflex developed and Briana should understand to breathe, suck, and swallow at the same time. However, Briana will not be able to breast feed or bottle feed until she has been further weened off the oxygen, so hopefully soon. I am quite excited to start that bonding process that breast feeding allows.

The echo scan of Briana's heart was also taken today and she still has a moderate to small hole in her heart. Clinically she is doing so well that the doctors do not want to operate on her yet. From what they have told me they want to wait till she has plateaued at some point, whether that be being weened from oxygen or having trouble feeding again. Once this happens they will then do the heart surgery. So the surgery will still happen but not until she is a little bigger, this is quite reassuring and also it allows Paul to be there too.

It is so nice to have Briana doing so well for a change. I am almost a little worried that I may jinx it at some point! Hopefully everything will keeping heading in a positive direction. I want to thank everyone for their prayers, it seems to be working! It means the world to both Paul and I to have such amazing support!