Oxygen

We are back from our big appointment for Claire... and the verdict is she still needs that darn oxygen and monitor. I had been praying diligently that this would be the day that she was able to come off of it and going into the appointment, I was very hopeful that she would be able to. After the nurse weighed her (she's up to 6 lbs, 10 oz now!) and measured her, we unhooked the oxygen and Claire did great! In order to "pass" they have to keep the oxygen saturation in their blood between 95 and 100. The whole time she was off the oxygen she stayed that high. I was thrilled! But then the nurse asked me to feed her. That was when her levels started to drop... they went down to 88 and we had to hook her up again. The doctor explained that if we took her off and had her breathing on her own, it would require a lot of extra work for her and it would burn so many calories that she would have a hard time gaining weight. I definitely don't want that for her, so if she's not ready to breathe on her own yet, I'm okay with that. After all, she's still not due for another 12 days! At this point, even though we hate the cords and tubes, we are getting used to them and it will make life so much easier when she does get to come off of it. The doctor said, "She's going to be fine... she just has a lot of little, unrelated issues to overcome." I asked if she would have had any of these issues if she was full term and he said probably not! If she only could have waited a few more weeks we probably wouldn't have any of this to deal with! BUT... totally worth it, of course! Overall, they noticed an improvement in her breathing from last time they saw her in the NICU, but she's just not totally ready yet. Dr. Bell didn't want to see us again for a month, but I insisted that we give it another go before Christmas, so we have another appointment on December 22nd. He said not to count on her being ready to come off then but I told him I'd feel better if we at least gave it a try. :) So... we still don't have a cordless baby but hopefully some day soon we will.