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We’re another day closer to bringing Brady home today. While she’s not off of her IV yet, the nurses are hoping that by midnight she’ll be completely weaned off of her fluids. She’s doing good with the extra milk she’s being given. At her 2:00 feeding she was up to 21ml and her last feeding should be up to 23ml. She didn’t keep the 21ml down completely and ended up spitting up on Casey but I blame this on the nurse. I had been feeding her and she said it should take 10 minutes for her to eat the entire contents (I was holding the syringe while it was going down the tube in her mouth) and when the nurse came back in to check there was 3ml left (which could have been my fault because you have to hold it at a certain height to get things to go down at the right speed). Well the nurse saw there was some left and got out the plunger thing and shotgunned the rest into her belly. No wonder she spit up while poor Casey was holding her. We also found out that she gained an ounce and a half in the last day so she’s within 15 grams (it’s apparently common in hospitals to use grams for weight because it’s easier when doling out prescriptions) of her birth weight. Brady’s really advanced because we heard most preemie’s don’t get back to their birth weights until 2 weeks after they’re born. She’s still in the incubator for now but hopefully won’t be on it for too much longer. She’s able to regulate her body temperature for the most part but when she’s not in the incubator her extremities will cool down faster than it should. I guess the other criteria for being in an open crib is that her weight has to be 3lbs 12oz so we’re not quite there yet. I’m so proud of how well Brady is doing and pray she’ll keep astounding everyone she comes in contact with.

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As you can see from the video that Casey posted below, Brady was taken off of her CPAP machine today! And like he said this was the first time holding her since she was born. He was waiting patiently until after he could get his flu shot before holding her just because of all of the warnings in the NICU and the fear that she would regress. I’m so happy that Brady didn’t have the CPAP on *and* they took off her shades (she’s under a light for jaundice right now and wears protective eye covering) so he could actually see her face while holding with her – well when she wasn’t trying to cover it up with her hands. Hopefully at some point more than one of us can hold her in a visit but for now we’ll be trading back and forth so she doesn’t get overly stimulated. They also started giving her breast milk today. I only wish I could speed up production on my end and get ahead of her. I think she’s eating (through a tube in her mouth which will soon be moved to her nose) as fast as I can pump it. Brady’s really doing well which is such a relief because it’s making the separation a little more bearable although it’s still really hard knowing that she’s in the NICU and not home with us. We’re praying everyday that she develops rapidly and can be sent home even before 37 weeks (gestational age).