Leaps & Bounds

I finally was able to go back to the hospital today and spend some time there with Brenna and Eliza. Brenna very proudly took Eliza through all of her cares and showed me how well Eliza is doing with everything. The nurse was never even involved tonight--Brenna did everything! Bren has really enjoyed being more involved and feeling some sense of being in charge of Eliza's cares and progress. As she continues to grow and gain strength the parents are able to take care of more and more of her needs. It's a wonderful feeling!

As for specific developments this week, Eliza is progressing by leaps and bounds. She is up to 4 lb 11 oz and gaining daily. Tomorrow will be six weeks since she was born, and she has added about 2 lbs since then. It's fantastic to watch her grow. Brenna worked really hard on the nurses this week to get them to allow Eliza to take the bottle. Thursday was technically Eliza's 34 week mark, so Bren was pushing for her to try the bottle that day. The nurse was hesitant because they generally round down on the day of birth to the nearest week. So, in their records when they say she was born at 28 weeks, that means 28 weeks exactly. Consequently, the nurse felt that Eliza wouldn't be 34 weeks until tomorrow. Brenna persisted, so the nurse, with trepidation, allowed her to feed Eliza from a bottle. They had just upped her feeding amount to 40 cc's that day, so the nurse was doubly concerned. Well, the concern was unfounded. Brenna said Eliza just attacked the bottle and downed it completely without any trouble. The nurse was absolutely astounded at how well she did. So they have continued to feed her from the bottle, and she continues to do very well. They started with two bottle feedings a day (again, this was on Thursday), and when we showed up tonight the gavage was gone and Eliza is now being completely fed by the bottle. She took 70 cc's tonight and polished it off in about 20 minutes or so. Like I said a few weeks ago--a regular Paul Bunyan!

She also passed her hearing test today and hasn't had a brady for several days. The nurse tonight told us that she believes Eliza doesn't understand how old she is. They are simply floored by her progress, and we are very grateful to be participating observants (I'm pretty sure that's not a proper phrase, and generally people don't observe something and yet participate at the same time, but that's what we're doing here).

So, I guess what I'm getting at is that if things continue to go well, the timeframe for her triumphant discharge is going to be sooner rather than later. I will continue to tell people probably four weeks away or so, just to limit my own hopes and expectations, but in my heart I believe it will be much, much sooner than that. Eliza has exceeded all expectations, and we are thrilled with her tenacious spirit.

Leaps and bounds, indeed (shout out to Trent with the usage of that word!).

A few pics and a new video:


So peaceful. (We did have to ask the guard bunny to stand down to get a clear shot of her for this pic).


Brenna feeding Eliza her 70 cc bottle Sunday evening.


Still pretty tiny. It's hard to tell in this pic, but the blue pacifier is a regular full size. If you remember the purple one from the first few weeks, she has graduated to the larger size. It's still ridiculously huge in her mouth, but at least she's getting the real mccoy now.



There is no question in my mind that Eliza loves her mommy!