The best five pounds I've ever gained.

Zoë wearing her first Two-Teta (my Teta!) hat

The last 48 hours have been incredible to see Zoë's progress (including hitting the five pound mark!).  48 hours ago was tough because she hadn't been doing her feeds very consistently, wasn't focused during breast feeding, and was just not moving as fast as I wanted her to!  Her doctors and nurses have been so reassuring, "she'll get it...one day the lightbulb will just go off in her head and she'll do it!".

Yesterday, the care team made the decision to let her try ad lib feeding, which means she tells us when she's hungry and then we feed her.  If she wakes up every two hours, then we feed her that often.  If she doesn't wake up for four hours, though, then we wake her up and feed her.  She hasn't used her feeding tube in over 24 hours, so that's gone, too!

Zoë sent her Teta happy birthday wishes all the way to Albuquerque yesterday.

I'm up to breast feeding 3 times per day and let me tell you, the lightbulb REALLY went off in that department.  One of the children's therapists came in this morning and both of us were in tears over Zoë's progress.  The therapist said this is probably the last time she'll see us as an inpatient.  She latches quickly and has good strong sucks for a long time.  Her respiratory rate is very good when she's doing this, too, which is most impressive.  This morning she nursed for 20 minutes!  As I type this in her room, though, she's starting to get fussy again...there's definitely a delicate balance of making sure she practices breast feeding and getting enough food.






Oooooohkay.  Everything prior to this was written before rounds.  Doctor during rounds: "So, we expect Zoë to go home tomorrow."  WHAT?!  I believe I told her to shut up, which, in hindsight, probably isn't very professional of me, but I was totally and completely surprised.  If Zoë eats and gains weight like she did in the past 24 hours, we are going to spring her from the hospital.  I went from extremely excited to extremely scared in about ten seconds flat.  What if she stops eating?  What if she won't sleep?  What if all of a sudden my diaper changing skills are thrown out the window because we're in a different place and don't have a careful eye of the nurse right there?  I KNOW I can take care of her, but there's something about having that red call button to summon a nurse at a moment's notice that is so reassuring.  ACK!

So, basically, her nurse today kicked me out (she was gentle about it) and said I should go and run any errands I needed to run and take care of anything I needed to take care of because tomorrow it's going to be a lot harder to do that.  Tonight when Chris and I go back to the hospital we are required to watch the infant CPR video and practice, we're going to give Zoë a bath, and she's going to take her car seat test.

Cross your fingers for us that she does well between today and tomorrow and that I can get through her discharge tomorrow without bursting into tears in front of the entire care team (that's not very likely, let's be honest).