3 Weeks Old!

Annie gained 10 grams but still weighs on the upper end of 2 lb 15 oz. She is doing great on 1 liter of O2 at this point and has several periods of complete wakefulness where she just sort of looks around and soaks in her environment. Tonight I got to hold Annie and look at her for a while. What a spirit she has! She is growing some jowls now, so that is fun to see. Today Annie is three weeks old officially, so happy birthday to her. Things are going as well as they possibly can right now. The doctors have talked about maybe tomorrow taking her down to 1/2 liter O2 and see how she manages that. Her feedings are still what they have been and she is handling those very well. She doesn't much care for the feeding tube though--or the nasal canula for that matter--and she is constantly grabbing at those with her hands. On several occasions she tears them out. Tonight as I sat and looked at her I felt a sad feeling of how I'm missing a lot of her first weeks of life, the typical development a baby goes through during its earliest days. That's sad to me! On the other hand, we cannot take care of her at home right now and she's in the right place.