Our sweet little Miss is 2 weeks old today and we can hardly believe it. Sometimes it feels like its been a month since she has arrived into our lives because so much has happened, and in other ways, we wonder where has the time gone already!?
She has made so much progress and growth in the last couple of days. The first major step came on Sunday when they removed her oxygen cannulas from her nose. She is now just breathing room air!! This is a huge step for an omphalocele baby because lung development, as mentioned in previous posts, is a concern because their lungs are sometimes underdeveloped at birth. Little Miss Charlotte has excellent lungs as we have learned during some of her little fits. She is doing so well breathing room air. The second big milestone that Charlotte hit in the last couple of days was getting her pulse oximeter monitor (Pulse OX) taken off. Due to her breathing going so well as mentioned previously they did not need to continually monitor her pulse ox, which monitored how much oxygen was reaching the body's tissues. However, they will continue to monitor her breathing with her breaths per minute. These have been going well also, sticking around 60 - 70 breaths per minute, until she gets upset and then she really puts those awesome lungs to work!
The third big step for Charlotte this week was she was switched out from a "Giraffe Bed", which is the typical NICU enclosed bed, to a crib bed. Due to Charlotte not needing the warming lamp to help regulate her temperature and having less "lines" to her body, she is able to use the crib bed now. The crib bed is also helping us emulate a similar environment that she will have at home with the intent to prepare her for going home.
The fouth big step for Miss Charlotte is that she has started working on breast feeding with mommy. This has not been an easy process yet but each feed and day is getting a little bit better. For right now they are keeping her NG tube in to help supplement her feeds until we start getting the hang of these feeds from mommy. However, today she finally had her first full feed from her mommy and had a nice poopy diaper shortly afterwards. These are all good signs and if they continue we are getting closer and closer to bring Charlotte home.
Tomorrow the doctors are going to remove Charlotte's central line. The central line has been where Charlotte has received all of her medicines through. The doctors do not see any need for keeping the central line in her due her not needing any more medications directly.
Christopher and I could not be more humbled and blessed by everyone's prayers and love that has been sent Charlotte's way. She is truly a gift from God and through his divine mercy and the intercessions of all of y'alls prayers she is doing incredible and will hopefully be going home sooner than we ever could have imagined.
~ Brittany and Christopher
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