Hello,

Claire has reached 36 weeks gestation today and tomorrow she will be one month old!  Today was a wonderful day as the IV was discontinued.  She is up to 28cc feedings via gavage and is doing well.  She latched on today without any difficulty and even had her first small feeding.  The evening nurse was wonderful and unhooked all of the monitors so that I could hold Claire and walk around the NICU with her in my arms.  It was the first time that I have been able to hold her un-tethered and it was so special.  The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to grow brighter :)

The goal now is for Claire to continue to increase her feedings as tolerated, introduce the bottle and nipple feeds, and wean her from the isolette to an open crib.  When she is able to demonstrate continued weight gain, can maintain her body temperature outside the isolette, and is free of any illness or issues, she will then be able to come home.  I know her discharge day is coming soon as the staff has started to do a lot of teaching related to care while at home and making sure that we have everything in place and are ready for Claire.

We remain positive and are so very proud of Claire.  She is doing her job of sleeping, eating, and growing very well.  Considering she is still a month away from her due date, she has made remarkable progress.  Thank you all again for your kind thoughts and prayers.  Your support has truly helped our family through this process of learning more than we ever thought we needed to know about preemies.  More soon...

xo,
Denise & Alan