Well, hello again! 8 days between posts and the reason for the delay, apart from my ability to procrastinate, is that no news equals good news! Lucy has gone from strength to strength this past week. We'll let the numbers tell this story:

Last Monday (12/3):
Body Weight:          1130 grams
Continuous PEEP:   9cm H2O
FiO2:                      60%

Today (20/3):

Body Weight:          1312 grams
Continuous PEEP:   7cm H2O
FiO2:                      30%

Body weight is fairly self explanatory, though it's worth noting that although a 16% increase in 8 days is great going, she's still got a long way to go until she hits the mean first-world birth weight (3200 grams). the Continuous PEEP value is the amount of pressure the CPAP machine is delivering with each assisted breath Lucy makes. Obviously, when less pressure is required from the machine it means Lucy's doing more of the breathing work herself. She's down to 7, and when she gets to 4 or 5 the doctors will begin to trial her with no additional breathing support at all. The final number shows the level of oxygen she's given through the CPAP machine, and again, because lower numbers are better, she's trending in the right direction.When she hits 21% she'll be breathing the same amount of oxygen that's in our atmosphere which is obviously the ultimate goal.

Taking off my nerd/stats hat, on top of all of this she looks great! It's probably hard to tell from the photos, but she actually has some meat on her tiny bones now, and her colour is much healthier too. Today's offering was a rush job that Robyn was able to snap whilst the nurses were doing her scheduled cares for the day. I think you'll agree that it looks like she's relishing the chance to have a good stretch out whilst she's not lying on her tummy! I'll endeavour to update within a week next time, but please remember, if I don't get around to it then all must be well :-)

Yay, goodbye ventilator!!! So since my last post on Wednesday, here's what's gone down:

Lucy was deemed not quite strong enough to try Long Prong CPAP on Thursday, so Robs and I were a bit flat for the rest of the day thinking it'd be another week before they'd try again. However, on Friday they team were keen to give it a go, and Lucy surprised us all by lasting for the whole afternoon! Although buoyed by this news, we still weren't celebrating at that stage as we were convinced that on Saturday she'd tire and be back on the ventilator, but to our amazement - Saturday (and then even Sunday) remained ventilator-less! Then come this morning, the doctors decided to give her a crack at 'proper' CPAP, and as of 8pm she's still going strong with good sats and gases. It won't be totally unexpected if she doesn't last, but having had 4 days without a machine doing all her breathing will be strengthening her lungs significantly and we're daring to dream! We're also happy that Lucy's resident doc was just as stoked as us with her sudden improvement!

For the uninitiated, CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. Unlike the ventilator, it doesn't breathe for the baby; rather it helps the baby breathe by providing additional pressure to keep the alveoli open each time the baby takes a breath. So now instead of being intubated for breathing, Lucy gets to wear this funky looking helmet thing. And, as you can see in the second photo, mum was pretty keen to pick off the remnants of the tape that held the previous tube in place. Who knows - eventually we might get to see our whole daughter's face at the same time!

Lucy's resting up tonight to get ready for her third crack at CPAP tomorrow. She's had another blood transfusion (her 4th in total) so she'll be topped up with those lovely red blood cells which will increase her oxygenation. The plan this time is slightly different - because she's now on Super Ventilator, they can run CPAP straight off the same machine with a pair of longer nasal prongs. Fingers crossed this will help her to cope with the stresses of extubation and result in her staying off ventilation for longer. 

Accidental alliteration notwithstanding, a common comment we get is 'It's really hard to picture how big/small she actually is'. In an attempt to rectify this, we took this picture of two beanies - the one on the left is a size 00000, designed for small full-term babies. The one on the right is Lucy's. So there you go.

Yay!!! Lucy's now officially a big girl!!! This morning she weighed 1002 grams and although it took her 38 days, she's finally there and we couldn't be prouder. The pics below show how we marked the occasion:

1. Robs got a big Mumma-cuddle yesterday.
2. We presented the staff with Lucy's 'Kilo Cake', a small token of our appreciation for all those in the NICU who've helped our little angel along the way.
3. Oscar picked out Lucy's first toy, which carries his pic on the front so Lucy won't forget who gave it to her.

Bring on kilo #2!

L