Saturday - Day 9 in the NICU

Harper is doing really great. In fact, we're just waiting for one final hurdle then hopefully she'll get to come home! She just needs to keep her temperature up above 97.5 (or more would be even better) for 24 hours. So far today she's doing great, and the nurses just had me remove a layer of clothes off of her to see how she does. Today we brought in footie pajamas and she's been wrapped in 2 blankets and had 2 hats on. We took off one hat and one blanket, so I'll call in about an hour to see how she's doing. I fed her at her 8 o'clock feeding and she ate her entire bottle of 60 cc's, which should help keep her warm.

She passed her hearing screen and her carseat test with flying colors. With babies born prior to 36 weeks, the NICU requires them to sit in a carseat for 1 hour and test their oxygen and heartrate levels. She also had her hepatitis shot. All of these things are the final things they do to release them. This is why all we're waiting for is her temperature to stay at a good level.

She's eating like a champ and nursing really well. I still am mostly letting her bottle feed so that she gets the extra calories with the supplement they're adding to the breastmilk, and we might have to continue to alternate with both once she gets home just to make sure she really gains weight.

Here are some pics from the past few days. Her little scratch on her face is finally almost gone. The tape from the feeding tube actually peeled a little bit of her skin off, but it's looking so much better. Her belly button is also starting to heal and getting ready to fall off. Tonight when I fed her, she was so wide awake for a long time afterwards. Such a sweet girl, we just looked at each other. I'm not sure how much she can see yet, but she was really studying everything and checking me out pretty good. Such a joy, we can't wait to bring her home.