Still Going Strong

Briana is still doing quite well. She in now completely off of her cannula and is breathing on her own. It's such a positive step in the right direction and is so encouraging. The only wires that are left on Briana's body are the monitors, they will stay on her until she leaves the NICU, and her feeding tube.

The feeding tube is still intact because Briana is only taking half of her feedings orally. Before she can come home Bri needs to be able to take all of her feedings by mouth. She just gets so exhausted from trying to take her feedings from the breast or bottle. Briana is taking 50 cc of breast milk a day and normally averages 15-20 cc from the breast or 20-25 cc from the bottle. The bottle is easier because she doesn't have to suckle nearly as much as she does the breast.

Briana now weighs 5.4 lbs. and is still growing. She is out of most of her preemie clothes and looks so grown up! The doctors did another echo scan and her PDA is still evident, it's a small to moderate hole. The cardiologist assured me that since she is doing so well clinically that they do not want to operate on her heart. Also, he told me he really isn't too concerned about her heart that it wasn't even on the back burner. He believes that it will close up on it's own and she will be able to come home with it and be an out patient.

The doctors also conducted a hearing test, which Briana passed! Also a speech pathologist came to work with Briana concerning her suckling on the bottle. She wanted to make sure that she is handling the feedings well. The speech pathologist was very impressed with Briana, but who are we kidding, she's our daughter, we knew that already!

We are also in the process of trying to get Briana transferred to Rush-Coppley. Briana would be 11 minutes from home and we could go see her more often. It's actually more important to me that Briana is closer to home so that Paul can go see her more often. It's difficult for Paul to go see her during the work week because he can't take 4-5 hours out of his work day. He is doing such an amazing job that it would be great to spoil him with a lunch break where we could go see Bri. We are just waiting for the insurance company to approve the transfer. We will miss the nurses so much but the reason we chose this hospital was because it is the sister hospital to Lutheran General. So, she would have the same doctors and they are already aware of our situation.

Both Paul and I want to thank everyone for the prayers and support. We don't know how we would have gotten this far without all of our friends and family.

** See below for a new video of Briana!! **