32 weeks

First things first, I have updated the URL for the blog, so if you have bookmarked the page, please make sure to update it.  It is actually slightly easier to remember now: https://schinkelfamily.blogspot.com/

Now that that is out of the way, our little girl is 32 weeks gestation as of yesterday.  This is a milestone for an important reason and that is that starting at 32 weeks gestation, babies begin to develop the ability to not only suck (which she has been doing for weeks), but also swallow.  So that means that she can beginning attempting food from bottles or breast versus just her feeding tube.  This is sort of touch and go from 32-34 weeks, when it should be fully developed.  But we got to watch her nurse yesterday feed her 12 ml of breast milk from her bottle and it was awesome to see her drink it down well.  So hopefully she will continue to do that and we can keep adding to her bottle feds so she can hopefully have the tube removed in the next two weeks sometime.  (Note: people are always asking us for pictures of her in relation to something else to get a perspective of her size, I think these are a good reference, knowing that our nurse that is feeding her is a lady of normal size, so those hands are a woman's hands).

Even little babies get burped

Since the last post a lot has happened, so let's do a few bullet points:
* After the last post (which went up on Saturday), she went back on CPAP on Sunday and stopped regulating her temperature, so she was given a break from both for a day.
* Then on Monday we came back and she was back off CPAP again (and has remained off the last two days), and they have started trying her again to regulate her body temperature
* Her body temperature regulation is a milestone that she really should not hit until closer to 4 pounds, so we fully intend to have some up and down days with this one (the best way to tell where she is with that is with the pictures, if she has clothes on, then she is attempting to regulate her own body temperature, when she just has a diaper on then the isolette is regulating the temperature for her)

Our little diva with her hands all over the place saying please mom and dad, don't take my picture!

Look at my cute outfit!  This outfit is a preemie outfit and still a little big on her!

* She is up to 3 pounds 6 oz.  She was there on Monday, but had some swelling from the antibiotics, so they gave her a diuretic to reduce the fluid and thus the swelling, when they did that she lost about 2 ounces yesterday, but then gained it right back in a day, so we are pleased with that.
* She seems to be gaining weight at a rate of anywhere from 0.8 ounces to 2 ounces each day, so she is doing awesome!
* Olivia is up to 28 mL feedings per session (every 3 hours), this is almost a full ounce of breast milk and she gets it about 8 times a day.
* BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK: Her culture that was drawn went the full 5 days without growth, so they officially consider her to be infection free; however, they watch it and treat for at least another 9 days (maybe longer). But we are very thankful to see her moving in the right direction.
* I will leave you with my favorite pictures, the mommy snuggles 💜💜

"Are you my Mother"