Day 7- the one week mark **updated again**

Lily made it through another night with critically stable vitals! Unfortunately her system is not digesting the breast milk quickly enough, so the docs may slow down a bit on the rate of feeding. Nonetheless, we're celebrating a week of life today, and six days of critically stable vitals! There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a long way off. And the road could be riddled with potholes that we don't see- that's the scary thing. So far it's been relatively smooth sailing; although six 'good' days in a row is both miraculous and an answer to our prayers- it's hard to escape the "pin is about to drop" feeling.

Sara and I find ourselves thinking about when lily comes home a lot. We always have to remind ourselves to take it a day at a time.

Off to the NICU now for the morning rounds update. I'll update this post throughout the day as we get info from the doctors. Hopefully it's another boring day...

One day at a time.

UPDATES
6pm.......

Lily is having a GREAT day!

Oxygen: The nurses were able to wean the settings (oxygen and pressure) down to the point where they could put her on another ventilation that allows her to do more breathing on her own. Lily is "out breathing" the new ventilator, which is at 40 breaths per minute- Lily's logging 60 breaths per minute. Great news! The docs were even talking about taking her tracheal ventilator out, and replacing it with a nasal ventilator. The PDA closing seems to have really helped a lot!

Body gas: Lily's blood acidosity is still being controlled by sodium bicarbonate. All of Lily's body gas tests are coming back in range! Electrolyte levels are good.

Feeding: lily is digesting her breast milk! The docs were able to dial up her feeding from .5 mL to 1 mL per hour Great! Lily also is having bowel movements. I never thought I would be so happy to see maconium... changed her diaper for the first time today! It was like changing a small doll's diaper... the nurse had to remind me she wouldn't break.

And Lily gained another 40 grams last night, bringing her only 10 ounces shy of her birthweight! We're going back to see her at 7:30. It amazes me that every single one of our prayers has been answered so far- Sara and I are so grateful.

Thank you all for your prayers, well wishes, and positive energy sent Lily's way. They are working more miracles every hour!

11pm.....
Sara and I had a nice visit with Lily - she's adapting well to the new ventilator, still logging 20 breaths in excess of the minimum setting, breathing those twenty on her own. Her blood oxygen is in the low 90s, holding steady. She's taking the 1 mL / hr of breast milk well; when we got there, they drew only 2mL of milk from her stomach, so she had digested half of the last four hours' feeding. That's an acceptable rate, the nurse told us.

Sara and I got to kiss Lily on the forehead for the first time today. Her skin has firmed up enough to be lightly stroked. She's opening both eyes, looking straight into ours - it's amazing. Everything about Lily is a miracle... she is defying all odds.

The nurses won't use phrases like "she's doing well". They're very cautious as to their word choice. "Trending positively" and "doing as we would hope" were a couple of the phrases they used... works for me!

We asked one of the nurses today: "When do you start worrying less about them?"
Nurse: "Well... when they go home."

It's going to be a long couple of months - but if Lily can do it - we can do it.