On Tuesday, Darren officially quit smoking! He threw out all his cigarettes and lighters. Just like that, done. I think he might still be a little upset with me for asking him to but I am so stinking proud of him!! And I know he can do this!! I love you babe!
Then, last Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat. Knowing that i'ts super important Brynlee doesn't get sick, I went to urgent care to get it checked out. The doctor said it looked and sounded like strep so she put me on an antibiotic. I was then considered contagious until I had the antibiotics in my system for 24 hours. Although I got a lot done (laundry, cleaning, thank yous) that was the hardest 24 hours EVER! I couldn't see my sweet girl for a whole 24 hours! Are you serious? Luckily, I had someone on the inside send me some pictures of her. That definitely helped pass the day.
On Thursdays, Ashlie (my sister-in-law) comes up to spend the day with me. I really look forward to Thursdays not only because is it nice to see a familiar face, but we always have fun together. She truly is my best friend. This Thursday, she came up and we finished baby registry shopping and getting all the things we needed when Brynlee comes home. Then when my 24 hours was up, we went to see our Brynlee Jo. When we got there, we found out they were going to move her out of "the box" and into a crib! Yay! Finally!! Another step closer to going home! The way you wean from the box to a crib is hitting a weight of 1800 grams. She was 1794. Also, they have to wean the temperature of the box down to 82* so they don't go from somewhere nice and cozy to freezing, and the had already been working on that.
Then on Friday, they were going to try her on low flow instead of high flow (low flow is basically the same as the kind of oxygen you can come home on while high flow is not just oxygen, but it also gives her an extra puff of air to keep her lungs inflated, so on low flow she'll actually have to do/remember to do all the breathing on her own) She failed miserably. Due to multiple reasons, though. They were expecting her to concentrate on eating from a bottle (suck, swallow, breathe, repeat), keeping her body temperature up, all the extra stimulation from more lights and louder noises, so much change she never got to "get used to yet"... and now they wanted her to breathe all on her own now, too. Well come Sunday when we had one of our primaries back, she realized all this and knew she didn't really ever get a fair chance.
So on Monday they retried her at low flow and she was a rock star!! We almost breezed right past the low flow and onto room air (what we breathe! No gizmos and gadgets helping her) but we didn't want to push her too hard and have to backtrack and start all over. So she's currently on low flow and kickin butt. They also changed her feedings to every other instead of every third now. All these little things that are all steps in the right direction!
Ways you can pray for miss Brynlee Jo-
-- pray that Brynlee continues to grow strong and healthy
-- pray that she will transition well from low flow to room air and we won't have to take any steps backwards
Ways you can pray for daddy-
-- pray that Darren can get lots of sleep as the early mornings, late nights, and long drive is trying to tear him down
-- pray that he continues in the right direction on not smoking and doesn't have any cravings
-- pray that he stays safe while continuing racing
Ways you can pray for mommy-
-- pray that we all stay healthy so we can come home faster
-- pray that pumping and breast feeding work out for us and even on the harder days I don't get upset or frustrated
