Upgraded

If all goes as planned, Nora will be upgraded to her own bassinet tonight. She was taken off oxygen entirely today. And, she "nippled" for the first time today. She still remains in "isolation" so I had to gown and glove, but got to do without the mask since she is off oxygen. She weighed in at 1760 g this morning (which is about 3 lbs 14 oz I think) and has had almost zero residual the last few days. Starting from the day I first was able to hold her in fact. Go Nora Go!

Ray was moved back around the corner. Oh so nice for us all. I was able to hold Nora and see Ray, who once again slept the entire time I held him and was awake and moving and grooving and doing his best to rip out his oxygen for a good hour while I held Nora. His oxygen was also reduce today, but not removed. Nora's nurse shared with Ray's nurse the strategy of not retaping and letting the doc see how well they do when they get it completely out. :) The prediction is that Ray will be off by the end of the weekend. We will see. Ray is still slightly less weight than Nora at 1750 g. He is doing so well with the bottle that he is taking one at every other feed right now. The nurse said today, before the orders were changed, that they will usually start to introduce breast feeding once that happens and that she would let it be known that I was interested. Oh yeah, I'm interested all right.

Max is off to Arizona and arrived safe and sound and went to bed with no problems. I only got a bit teary eyed and cried a tad once I was inside and out of eye sight. The house is too clean and too quiet tonight. Good thing I am too tired to be too sad.

All and all, it was a pretty good day. I feel like maybe we have turned the corner with our NICU stay and unless there are any set backs, we are on a clear and solid path to home. Yes, still at least weeks down the road, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's not blinding me with its brightness, but it is clearly visible to the naked eye.