Monday's update

Tonight Annie is weighing in at 3 lb 10 oz! She is gaining some good weight and we are very happy about that. Annie's biggest puzzler she's dishing out right now is her breathing. We just can't figure out why she is having so many desaturations and heart rate drops (A's and B's). This is perplexing for us and for the staff. On one hand they say she is doing great, and on the other hand they say she is having more of these breathing episodes than is normal. So, we are left to sort of wait it out to see what will happen. One theory is that the post-feeding reflux is causing the severe desaturations. This would make some sense because most of the desats and A's and B's happen after feedings. There's also the ever-present PDA that has still not closed. The doctors feel pretty certain these events are not only from the PDA though. She does not have an infection, so that is ruled out. They have discontinued her caffein dosage to see if that would make any sort of difference as well and it doesn't seem to have done much. There is also the fact that little Annie is just still little, and with time this ideally will work itself out. There is medication of course for the PDA, and there is medication to stop the reflux. But, there are possible adverse effects to both of those approaches as well. The thought right now is that less is better, and waiting for the body's natural process to unfold is still the best bet. To assist with her breathing issues they have upped her O2 to 2 Liters at 23-25%, which is really not that big of a change from the 1.5 L she was at. So, that's where we're at. She is beautiful, you should all know that! Nicki got to spend some good time holding her today and I got to touch her this evening--that's always nice. More later!