Sunday was a bit of a rollercoaster with our sweet girl. We arrived to the hospital shortly after 3pm to find the nurse feeding her and she took almost 2/3’s of her bottle. It was so great to see! We got report from the nurse that her feedings had been improving, and everyone was in good spirits! Many of the nurses and our NICU friends have said that in the NICU, one day, they just “get it” and decide to start taking the bottle better. We have been hopeful to get to that point (one day at a time). Snuggle time was good and as the day went on Maelyn’s alarms started going off pretty frequently. In prior days that would happen, and she’d be fine. It was mentioned that her wires were sensitive and would sometimes go off with movements. Jeremy and I stepped out to get a bite to eat and when we arrived back at her bedside there was a nurse practitioner there suggesting a chest X-ray and placing her on a low flow oxygen. This sent me spiraling because it had been a full week since she had been on any respiratory support. My mama heart was hurting. Jeremy held me as they placed the oxygen on Maelyn and completed the chest X-ray. Everything on the X-ray came back normal.

We arrived back on Monday (Memorial Day) to find her sweet nurse Chrissy feeding her and she took her whole bottle! This was a great start to the day! Chrissy let us know she had another full bottle by mouth over night- this all increasing her percentage of overall by mouth feeds. One step closer to getting her feeding tube removed! We spent the day with her and Jeremy really worked with her at each feeding while I pumped and did skin to skin time with her. She took two full bottles for Jeremy and we were so happy! She also got to meet Uncle Justin & Aunt Sarah for the first time and we had a special visit together 🥰

Maelyn still remains on oxygen and it seems to be helping everything improve! She is beginning to be awake more and is now cueing when it is time to eat, which was a major turn from her just sleeping constantly, even when time to eat. We got to see her beautiful eyes open for a large bit of the day yesterday, which again was so special after she was pretty lethargic for the last week.

Last evening we left feeling very encouraged and that things were headed in a great direction! So many answers to prayer! Also, our nurses the last 2 days have been absolute god-sents and have sat and provided so much parental support and encouragement as we had these few hiccups along the way.

Dad (Jeremy) went back to work today (Tuesday), so we will adjust our routine a little going to and from the NICU. Mia (Kim) will go up for the day with me and then Jeremy plans to join us from his commute in the evening to bring me home. Excited to see our girl today and hear about her progress through last night ❤️

The prayers are felt and we have felt a continuous peace that passes all understanding that we know only can come from the Lord 🩷