Breathe In, Breathe Out

These days, Charlotte's updates primarily revolve around her breathing. Of course, I am going to prove myself wrong with that since I have so much to update.

Weight: You won't believe it. I didn't. 3355 grams. 7 pounds, 6 ounces. I told you you wouldn't believe it.

Eyes: As of last Friday, CA's eyes looked stable. They will be checked again this week, and hopefully the progression that occurred in her right eye will not occur in her left. If everything looks good this week, we MIGHT get the go ahead to move to every two weeks for eye exams. That would be great-- I mean, would you want your eyes dilated every week? No thank you.

Lungs: CA is currently doing 3 hours on high flow nasal cannula, three times a day. She's on 4 Liters (I'm pretty sure this means she gets 4 liters of air every minute through the nasal cannula, but I really don't know for sure). The rest of the day she is on CPAP with a pressure of 6. The plan is to increase her times by one hour, as she tolerates it. So hopefully sometime this week she'll go to 4 hours, 3 times a day. Then 5 hours, then 6 hours, etc. Until she's CPAP free.

Dietary: There was an attempt to feed Charlotte by bottle this week. She drank a whole 1 mL. Go girlfriend! This attempt was an opportunity for the speech pathologist to watch her eat and see what physical abilities Charlotte has when it comes to the suck/swallow/breathe routine. CA did well with the suck, mediocre with the swallow and totally forgot about the breathing part. Pretty typical. They'll continue to use oral feedings as part of Charlotte's Physical and Speech Therapy time. If she doesn't improve with her feeding skills, she'll go down to CHOP for the swallow study, but not until she's totally off of CPAP for breathing. Phew.

Acid Reflux: For all those non-chemistry majors out there, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. The lower the number, the more acidic (ie Lemon Juice), the high the number, the more basic (ie, Soap). Stomach contents should be slightly acidic, hopefully in the 3-5 range. CA is rockin a solid stomach pH of 1. ONE. That's pure HCl folks. Awesome. That's gotta burn. They have changed her medication to prilosec and hopefully that will start to kick in soon. Ugh, I hate heart burn. Poor baby.

Length: CA was born at 11 inches. This week, she's rocking an awesome 19 inches long. That's a real baby length!