"Things Should Slow Down For a Bit"

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past two days-- I've been busy at work and home and haven"t had time to post. The short update is that Madeleine is doing very well-- the quote in the Title of this post was taken from our conversation with the attending NICU doctor. At this point, Madeleine is fairly well recovered from heart surgery and the doctors don't have many immediate goals for her other than the following:

- Finish weaning off breathing support: Madeleine is still on vapo-therm, a high flow nasal canula but is no longer receiving oxygen (only room air) and should continue to wean for the next week or so. They're not weaning any further today (she is on 4 mls of flow) as she shows some signs of being tired and they don't want to push her too far.

- Feeding: Madeleine is currently receiving 6 cc's of breastmilk every 3 hours and this will increase by 1 cc every 12 hours until she reaches full feeds (around 25 cc/feed). She's currently being fed by a tube but she will begin bottle feeding-- starting once/day and increasing as she gets better at it. The doctors like to wait until the nasal canula is reduced to 2 mls before starting the bottle feeding.

- Weight gain: Madeleine weighed 1820 grams (around 4 lbs) last night and the doctors hope to see close to 20g/day gained. This may be a little too aggressive given Madeleine's heart and intestinal issues but that's the goal.

That's it. At some point, we'll begin thinking about the re-attachment surgery but we have a few weeks before they would even begin trying to schedule the surgery. Typically, the surgeons like to wait 6 weeks following the last intestinal surgery but given Madeleine's past struggles, they may wait a bit longer. The six week period falls on June 3, so it is possible that surgery will be scheduled for early to mid-June. Still, at this time, its too early to project with any level of certainty. Our goal to get her home is still July 1 and that looks like it could be possible (give or take a few weeks).

That's all for now. My camera is charged and I plan on taking a bunch of pictures at the hospital tonight. I"ll try to post some new ones ASAP.

Thanks again for the support.

Brent