Big day for Maggie

It was a big day for the little miss yesterday! First off, she came off of all IV fluids. They got her past full feedings and up to 22 mL per feeding. At her 11 am feeding, they pulled the PICC line from her leg. It is great to see that go because it made it hard to hold her. That little connection was rough on her tiny leg.

At 2pm we noticed her right eye was pretty matted with some gunk. As the nurse was wiping it clean, more came out and her eye was pretty swollen. After the doctor took a look, he put her on antibiotic eye drops. It is common for preemies to have issues with their tear ducts plugging. Sometimes, this will cause an infection, but it should clear up pretty quickly with antibiotics.

At 8pm, her eye was starting to look a bit more puffy. The doctor came in to take a look and decided it wouldn't hurt to pull her off c-pap to get things off her face and away from that little eye. She has been at the oxygen concentration of room air and at the lowest pressure setting for a couple of days, so it was the right time to try to take her off it.

At 11pm, the nurse came in to find that Maggie already had pulled off her c-pap and had completely pulled out her feeding tube. I guess she was ready for it to be gone! They spent some time trying to clean the adhesive off her face and I was able to snap some pictures of a baby without all the stuff around her nose and mouth! She's a lot more cute without it :)

After they got her cleaned up a bit, they put a new feeding tube in through her nose. This should help her start to use a pacifier more effectively. She immediately had her little fingers up by her mouth trying to suck on them. I think she will be quite the little eater when we swap to a bottle.

John and I took turns hanging out in her room for the next couple of hours. We were a bit nervous about the tubes coming out, but she did great! I think it helps that she is super feisty and had them out of her nose half of the time anyway.

With all that excitement, we were happy that Fin had a much slower day. His feedings were increased to 24 mL. He continues to love his cuddle time, but I think we found a trick with him. We were always having to increase his oxygen saturation during the second half of holding him. I think he gets a little air trapped in his belly during his feeding and prefers to be held a bit more vertical after he is fed. We will test that theory today and see if that helps the little buddy out.