Amazing Grace!

Amazing Grace!
Sorry for the delay in updates, but Grace has Mommy up and feeding every three hours now. Grace was doing so well with her sequence of 4 feeds in 1 day and 5 feeds the next that Doug and I advocated to skip the 6 feed day and move right into the last step of the Pathway. The neonatologist was hesitant at first, but we compromised and she is closer to going home. The demands put on her are that she must wake to feed less than every four hours, demonstrate a weight gain, and eat for 10 minutes per feed. Yesterday was the first day and she blew by the 10 minute feeding rule with 20+ minute feeds and one 30+ minute feed. She also shows signs of wanting to feed with every 3 hour diaper change. However, last night at her midnight weigh in, she initially showed a 2 oz. loss in weight. I was so disappointed as it meant the day did not count as one of the two required and she still would need 2 more days of success here at the hospital to prove she could make it at home. I started thinking logically about how she could have lost 2 oz. as she had just finished a 30+ minute feed. After a while it came to me that the nurse did not weigh her on the scale with a blanket underneath her like the nurse did the previous night. I called the nurse back in, we added the blanket and then reweighed her. The blanket added 2 oz. and her physician decided to give her credit for the day! I was so pleased and thankful.
The other wonderful event was that Grace got her feeding tube removed from her nose. As part of the new feeding schedule, she is not allowed any more tube feeds unless she begins to lose weight. This was a lot of relief as she had become very adept at hooking her index finger under the tube right at the base of her nose where the tape ends. She would then pull it out very quickly and it was always a struggle to get it back in and retape it. Just 3 more wires to go!
Grace also passed her first test in an A+. She had to undergo an hour long stress test in her car seat so they know she’d be able to handle being transported to and from home. The car seat nearly swallowed her up, it is so big, but she slept right through the entire hour.
We are hoping for some weight gain tonight, even an ounce counts as significant; if her bilirubin and sodium counts stay where they are, we should be clear to go home tomorrow or Monday. Doug brought in some cake (with butter cream frosting!) to celebrate the occasion. Cross your fingers and say a prayer!