5 pounds!!!

Little miss Danielle is growing like a little weed! She reached the 5 pound milestone this weekend and we couldn't be more proud of her! She is still getting just over 1 ounce of food every 3 hours. Her being up to full feedings is helping her growth so much. Some people have asked if she is growing 'faster' than Dylan did at this age? The answer is 'yes', this is because she has been up to full feedings much earlier than he was because he was so sick. This is such a wonderful thing for her growth wise, maturity wise and also developmentally.

Her eye exam showed that her ROP has progressed a bit. They will still re-check her in a week. But they now took pictures of her Retina's and can look at the pictures week to week to see if the ROP has progressed or re-gressed. We want it to regress (get better). Also, the Pediatric Opthamologist changed her oxygen setting to be at 100% all of the time. This is so different for us because she was only requiring between 22-25% oxygen and now they are giving her 100% whether she needs it or not. But increased oxygen at the gestation she is at can have a significant benefit on preemie baby's retinas, so this is the reason for that change. She still is on 0.5 liter nasal canula and in reality, if she were to come home on oxygen she would come home on 100% anyway because at home we don't have the capability of having an analyzer to change her oxygen settings. So we are praying that the lord takes great care of her eyes and she continues to be a strong little girl and that her eyes will be just fine.

In a few of these first pics you can see she had her feeding tube coming out of her mouth. One nurse did that and the next nurse changed it, thank god! It is just better to have it in her nose because we only want 'positive' things in her mouth so she associates the 'positive' pacifier with feedings to get ready for bottle feedings. That is why it was changed back, thank goodness!!

We are so fortunate the lord has blessed us with our precious baby girl. She has touched our hearts just like Dylan has. The love we have for our children is just unimaginable.....we pray that God protects them every day of their life and they continue to grow and be healty.~