Leaps and bounds

Elsie has progressed by leaps and bounds the last two days.

Thursday was her last day of antibiotics, so her IV is now out. She can now wear some stylish hats! Her billirubin was measured again on Thursday, and has decreased with the use of the glowing blanket - so her jaundice has also improved as well. She still has a slightly orange tint to her skin but it is getting better.

On Friday we made huge strides with breastfeeding. Which also meant that it was time for me to move in and stay with Elsie around the clock. As of this morning, we have had 5 successful feedings with no additional supplement needed by tube, and the last 4 were in a row. She has to prove she can go 24 hours (or at least 8 feedings) in a row of nursing or bottle feeding before they take out the tube and we go home. So we are now halfway there!

The whole feeding process takes about an hour and a half, between all the nurses steps, waking her up and undressing her, feeding her, putting her back together again and pumping afterwards. And then an hour and a half later we do it again. I'm tired but each feeding session is so exciting that it hasn't really hit me yet. Lynden stayed at the NICU with me last night to help out, which was also wonderful.

I hope to post some pictures later today...