NICU Day 12 (December 19th)

Noelle had a stable day overall for which we are very grateful. She currently weighs 15.2 oz. but we take into consideration that this includes her breathing tube and the heplock in her foot...either way, she has not dropped below her birth weight so that is a praise. She is tolerating her feeds very well, so they were able to increase them yet again...she is getting .4 milliliters per hour (we are slowly but surely moving toward the 3 milliliters per hour they want her to be receiving for her size). They had weaned her off the hydrocortisone today for her blood pressure, but her blood pressure started dropping again, so they are going to put her back onto it and wean her off over a longer period of time. Her adrenal glands need to kick in and figure out that they need to take over for her body. Hopefully the longer weaning period will help that. Her white blood count was slightly lower today. The white bands were still the same count, but overall it was a little lower, and the bands had not increased so we were thankful for that. They are still watching her closely for infection as she is off antibiotics now, but she has now been off of them for 4 days!! We know this could dip again, but we're grateful that for now she is not on them. She is still having a bit of trouble with one of her lungs--one small section seems to have trouble staying inflated, but her x-ray today did look a little better so hopefully that will continue to improve. As far as updates, we are trying to get a page going through "Caring Bridge" and hopefully will have that up soon for people to stay updated and continue to pray. We cannot thank God enough for your love, support and prayers.