The 5lb mark!

Lauren reached 5lbs 1oz on Friday 8/7. She is still a little swollen in her eyes & feet, but is looking less swollen than she did a few days ago. Last night (Saturday) she weighed in at 5lbs 1.1oz. I can't believe she is over 5 pounds now. I thought for sure she would come home under 5lbs. Now we have a bigger selection for car seats to choose from. It doesn't seem like you have that many choices for ones under 5lbs. She is still fitting in preemie clothes...the newborn stuff is still big on her.

Dr. Kaempf is back now after being down here in Salem's NICU for 2 weeks. His goal is to try and get Lauren weened down off the high flow oxygen to low flow oxygen which she can come home on. He wants to get her home in about 2 weeks. YAY!! He cut her oxygen flow down from 3 liters/min to 2.5 yesterday and she seemed to do alright with the change. She still has big fluctuations with her oxygen saturations often, but is hanging around room air (21%) for the percent of oxygen.

He also decided to take the feeding tube out of her nose since he feels she is taking from a bottle well. They were using the feeding tube about every other feeding, but he wants to try and use the bottle all the time now. If she doesn't finish all of her feeding from getting too tired, they can re-insert the tube (from her mouth to stomach) and give her the rest that way. She also is getting 1.5ounces every 3 hours now.

As you can tell Lauren definitely has some chubby cheeks and a cute little double chin!