More progress- less coffee

Olivia and a very proud Mom (or 'Mum' as they say in these parts). She seems to continue to take steady steps which is great. I forgot to mention that she's been on a drug for a few days- the same drug I'm on right now: Caffiene! I guess with early babies caffiene helps stimulate the respiratory system which is, of course, important. I think she'll be a coffee drinker for sure; 3 hours oafter being born she was already mainlining! As Suzanne said, "all that time in pregnancy I was avoiding caffiene, and now she needs it?"

But I only mention this because she's now _off_ the caffiene, which is a great step. She actually came off the caffiene a couple of days ago. But the great thing about that is that after 5 days without caffiene (which would make me into a wreck!) she can be taken off at least one more of her monitors, since she'll have proven that she can breathe by herself successfully. This is a huge thing, since it's the wires that make it feel like she's in the hospital. It's also one of 2 important steps in the way out of SCBU and towards being in a room with Suzanne.

The other important step that we made yesterday is that she graduated to 3-hourly feeds, and is starting to make good progress learning to breastfeed. Once she's fully breastfeeding she'll tell us when she's hungry, but while the tube is still in they want to feed her on a schedule with measured amounts to track her progress; if she digests all we give her, it's a good sign, and she seems to be doing well at that!

Last night the nurse allowed her out of the SCBU for about 1/2 hour to come to Suzanne's bed for some breastfeeding practice, which was wonderful; it was the first time the 3 of us have been alone together, even though it was only curtians between us and the nextbed, it felt very peaceful and relaxing.

Ok, off to the hospital again...