meet Quackers

Today Caley again graduated from the CPAP mask to the nasal cannula. She's doing really well so far -- no apnea or bradycardia in the 8 hours since she switched over. Getting rid of the CPAP also meant that Caley got to be rid of one of the tubes down her throat. She also got rid of a port in her leg through which she was getting her EPO shots. So she's down to a cannula, a feeding tube, and a central line, plus multiple monitors (heart rate, pulse ox, respirations, and temperature). The central line will go once the doctor is confident that she's tolerating full feeds without any problems (she reaches full feed volume tomorrow, so maybe in a few days?).

And today Caley met Quackers for the first time:

Hi Quackers!

Quackers is a present from Mommy's bestest friend Sam, who was in town visiting for a few days. We plan to take a picture every week or so to measure Caley's growth against Quackers. Here's the foot-to-foot shot from today:

And while we were playing paparazzi, we took this shot too:

This is the first decent shot we have of Caley's face, and she gave us one eye open at least. Note Mommy's anniversary band on her right arm -- that's how small she is!

Overall, Caley is doing relatively well right now. The doctors are closely monitoring her feeding, and doing everything they can to guard against NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis - a bad bad thing), for which preemies face a high risk. We continue to hold our breaths and pray especially for a healthy digestive system, lungs, and brain.