Rockin' Roller Coaster

We went to bed last night exhausted from a day of worrying over sweet little Clara. Once again, everyone's thoughts and prayers paid off because her preliminary blood cultures came back negative! This is great news but we are not out of the woods yet. There is a chance Clara's blood cultures could still be positive when the results come back at 48 and/or 72 hours. She also had fewer episodes where she dropped her heart rate today, which is a positive sign. Clara's oxygen level remains around 35% - 40% (21% is considered room air and is the amount of oxygen Wilson is on) but that is down from Friday.

The doctors felt Clara was doing well enough to resume her feeds this evening. Before her episode on Thursday night, Clara was receiving 22cc's of fortified breast milk every 3 hours. The doctors kept the IV line in place and started her back at the cautious rate of 9cc's/3 hours. If Clara tolerates the milk (does not drop her heart rate or oxygen, spit up, have a distended belly, etc), the doctors will quickly move her back up to 22 cc's every 3 hours.

In spite of all this turmoil, Clara still managed to gain weight and is now at 2 pounds 15 ounces!! The doctors do not know what caused Clara to regress so suddenly on Thursday, but believe it could be related a "feeding intolerance." This happens because the digestive systems of preemies are incredibly sensitive and taking milk this early can be difficult. It is hard for us because we don't know what the problem is and there isn't a definitive cure for what we think is happening.  

The great news from today is that Wilson now weighs over 3 pounds!!!!!!!!! For whatever reason this is a major psychological hurdle for  us. We know 3 pounds is still incredibly small but it seems more developmental milestones are within reach once you hit the three pound mark. For example, at 3.5 pounds babies start to keep their body temperature and can be moved from an isolette to something that more closely resembles a crib. We will also be able to hold them more which will be wonderful.

Our little big man shows off his guns.
Three pounds, way to go Wilson!

The "roller coaster" analogy is proving to be true, but we really appreciate everyone joining us for the ride. Sure, we'd much rather be somewhere on an actual roller coaster, but it will be years before the kids are tall enough. (Ok, that was the worst joke ever made on this blog)