Over 5 pounds, pushing toward 6!

They kept telling us that once she started gaining weight, she would just keep going and that she is!  I began a post a little over a week ago when she went past 5 pounds and as of today, she is at 5 pounds 11.4 ounces.  She is certainly beginning to look more and more like a full term baby (though all the babies I have know have been in the upper 7 pounds to 9 pounds, so she still feels little by comparison).  She is starting to outgrow her preemie clothes and is in mostly all newborn clothes!  At this rate, I am seriously hoping she will get to wear all her newborn clothes before she outgrows those too! haha

Check out my newborn outfit!

Her favorite pastimes include eating, sleeping, eating more, sleeping more, and maybe a snuggle in there too!  Though she also seems to be perfectly content being swaddled and left to chill.  As is evident by all the pictures, she has not yet gotten used to her pic line being in and constantly keeps that hand up.

She is a ninja when it comes to escaping her swaddle and we often find her like this:

She is doing such a good job with her bottle, and is now on straight breast milk for 6 of our her 8 feedings a day and then just does a calorie drink (enfamil--preemie edition) for two of her feedings.  I breastfed when we are there visiting and she has also done well with that.

Most days now, she is getting in about 60-70 mL per feeding (approximately 2 ounces), this is up from less than 15 mL at the beginning.  She is certainly enjoying more freedom with less cords and wires and is moving around and making so many more noises these days.

She is a very observant little one and when she is awake (which still is not too often), she is always looking around to see what is going on and who is talking.  She has started Physical Therapy and that is going well.  She is doing all the things they hope to see in a baby her gestational age, which is great.  She will keep up with that well after she comes home and likely to a year or more, as needed, until she catches up to a full-term baby.  They say it is anywhere from 18 months to 2 years before preemies are hitting milestones the same as their full-term baby counterparts; her nurses all think she will likely be on the earlier end of that!

Needless to say, we are pretty smitten with her...

How could you not love a face like this??


Other things of note:
* Her last eye exam still showed that her eyes were immature, so she will continue to receive those until she catches up to a full term baby
* She will have a follow up echo this week, we would love for you all to pray with us that the shadow near her heart has shrunk some, as the doctors are really looking for her body to eventually absorb that.

Thanks again for all the love and support and though my intentions are always more posts, please be patient with me as life is still very busy.  I love keeping everyone updated but after pumping 7-8 times a day, going to work, going by the hospital then getting home in just enough time for a late dinner with Marc and maybe 30 minutes to start laundry or some other chore before bed, this is often the thing that gets cut from the "to-do" list.  Maybe I will aim for shorter but more frequent posts!  We love hearing that everyone is keeping up with her and we will continue to update as often as we can!  But for now, status quo is the name of the game.