Avery

So Miss Avery is still doing wonderfully. She is up to 850 grams. She just needs another 25 to get back to her birth weight. Per her nurse once the babies hit 2 lbs they tend to take off so we are praying she gets to 2 lbs pretty quickly. She only needs 2 more ounces.

They upped Avery's food intake again and they changed how she is being fed. They have changed her over to what is called continuous feed. Instead of doing feedings every 3 hours they now have a constant feed. The purpose of this is so that her little belly doesn't get so full all at once. I have mentioned before that Avery forgets to breath and has heart rate drops which is normal for babies of her age and actually normal all the way up to babies at 34 weeks. Avery will be 27 weeks Sunday so this will continue for another 7 weeks. The nurse noticed that her heart rate drops seemed to coincide with her feedings, so since she is 27 weeks this will not completely stop the forgetting to breath and heart rate drops but hopefully it will decrease the frequency. They told us before that they would eventually change her feeding type. It is pretty standard practice so it was no surprise to us. But the nurse said just like when we feel stuffed and can't breath it is no different for her, so changing the feeding method will hopefully help her breathing.

Today I changed her diaper for the first time. Some of the other nurses have asked if I wanted to in the past, however I have to say moving her about like that makes me nervous so I have declined. Today's nurse didn't really give me the option but I am glad. I learned I am a horrible diaper changer but I will get better. On this evenings diaper change I almost diapered in one of her wires. It is kinda fun changing her diaper. I doubt I'll be saying that when she gets bigger though. That's when it will be daddy's job.

We did Kangaroo care again. Pat had a slightly sore throat so he didn't touch her tonight, so once again I got to hog her. She seems to really like the kangaroo care. She tolerated it for a good 20 plus minutes. They even brought in a nice comfy chair for us to use for kangaroo care. It was wonderful. It is so great getting to be close to her.

Oh and other great news thanks to a couple great friends we also have a wonderful nurse who has taken special interest in Avery. This particular nurse has requested to be Avery's primary care nurse so that any time she is working she has Avery. I think this is absolutely wonderful. She seems to be a great nurse and is really nice. So Pat and I are very thankful to those friends who pointed this blessing our way.