Picture Time!

Natalie now weighs 4lbs 7 ounces, just 3 ounces up from her birth weight. Breathing requires a lot of calories due to her respiratory status so gaining weight is a struggle. The good news is that she is now on much better nutrition so healing and growing should be easier.

Last night they were able to go down on of her vent settings even before starting the steroids (breathing rate is now set at 20 breaths per min). Her blood gas this morning was good so she tolerated the change well. She gets her second dose of steroids this morning so hopefully we will see some change over the next 24 hours. Her oxygen requirements have still been up and they need to be able to lower the pressure settings on the vent before they can consider extubating. It should be a gradual process, another chance to practice patience. I told Steve to be prepared-when we get the call that the breathing tube is out I will be running full speed to the hospital.

I am not sure if I have mentioned her feet before. Both were turned in a little due to her position in the womb and lack of fluid. The left foot has straightened a great deal on it's own but the right foot is still clearly a club foot. It's funny to me that had our pregnancy been normal I would have been upset to hear of a club foot. Under our circumstances, however, I just thought "Oh, it's a foot, we can fix a foot." So hard to care about other things when a baby's lungs are at risk. I look forward to the day an orthopedist comes to evaluate her because it will mean she is stable enough to focus on the more mundane issues.

Here are some more recent pictures of Natters. She seems much smaller in person...I need to put something next to her for a size reference.







First Real Clothes (Outfit courtesy of her Great Aunt Jan♥)







She looks a little less like Annie now. Actually, she reminds me quite a bit of my nephew Keith when he was a newborn. They have similar head shapes and hair.

Annie was sitting on my lap looking at the pictures and kept saying "Is that MY baby sister??? She's soooo cute!" It will be so sweet when they can actually meet!