Ava - October 1st

Today was a very exciting and successful day!!  We got a good 5 hours of sleep last night that helped tremendously....along with a few cups of coffee! 

This was our surprise when we went in for our 9:00 feed...notice anything different???  She was off her oxygen and her last umbilical line had been removed!!  This picture was taken just before they replaced her NG tube for feeding...but it was great to get a few pictures of her without any lines.

If she does good without the oxygen, then the only thing keeping her there is feeding!

Josh also got to change his first diaper.  Lucky for him it was a REALLY poopy one! Ha!

Now that her lines are gone, Miss Ava was ready to get dressed and swaddled!  I loved seeing her in clothes and looking more like a "normal" baby.  She just looked so cute and little!!

her pouty lip...

Our little photographer....thanks to Charley (one of Owen's best friends) Owen now has his own camera and absolutely loves it!

Calling the HOGS!!

Go Hogs!!

Beema and Aunt Amanda holding Ava for the first time....

Our little hog fan...

Ava's feeding schedule was about the same as yesterday....every three hours around the clock.  She's definitely showing improvement with a few increased feeding times.  She was able to feed for over 5 minutes each time which meant that she only required 1/2 a supplemental feed. Yay!  At 12:00 she breastfed for 13 minutes and then tonight at her 9:00 feed she feed for 17.5 minutes!!!  So we've had our 1st successful feed without any supplemental tube feeding.  They have also increased her feeds to 45ml/1.5 oz, so she'll be this amount tonight at her 12:00 and 3:00 tube feedings.

In order for Ava to be discharged she has to be feeding for over 15 minutes at each feed.  Once this is happening, we'll be required to "room in" at the hospital to make sure we can do everything ourselves before discharge.  Hopefully we'll have more "successes" tomorrow and be closer to bringing our baby girl home!