Two Months Down...

I cannot believe we will be celebrating two months tomorrow! It seems like just yesterday I was being admitted to the hospital for bed rest. This past month has been one of great progress for our little Juliet. On Christmas Day, she gave us a wonderful present of officially doubling her birth weight! This is huge, even though it only put her at a little over 3 pounds.

Santa came to see her as well!

Grandma Phillips also got a chance to hold her for the first time. She has also been doing well on high flow nasal cannula. This is the last breathing machine she will be on. We started with a flow of 5 liters of air per second, and as of today we are down to one liter. Her oxygen requirements are still about 26%, but she has time to work down off of that oxygen.

She started out 2013 with a bang by moving out of the incubator and into an open crib. This means she is now maintaining her own body temperature without the help of a machine. She is being weaned off of her EPO, which was given to her because of a low blood count. She is also getting weaned off of her caffeine, which was helping her brain remember to breath. As her body is slowly taken over things, she is burning more calories so her feeds have increased as well. She is now taking 35mls every three hours, which is slightly more than one ounce. She has passed her eye exams with flying colors. Many premature babies have mild to severe vision problems due to their eyes developing outside of utero. She will probably need glasses in the near future, but at least we are not looking at eye surgery any time soon.

We have introduced a bottle and she is slowly learning to eat on her own. Once she gets that down, she will be coming home! We are expecting it to take at least another 3 weeks and possibly more. Juliet is starting to show a little personality and it is a true joy to watch all her facial expressions. Her nurses and doctors are wonderful and we are all working as a team to provide the best and most consistent care we can for her. She is a little chub now at 4lbs 6oz. Her due date is not too far away now, and we are so excited to begin the next chapter in her story. I pray 2013 will be kind to you all. I know we were excited to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome in 2013 and all the joys it will bring.