Day 72 (34/5) - Asher's Journey

6:06am – Text Message

Good morning mom and dad! I had a fabulous night! I was so excited to have Nurse Kelly back so I had to show how grown up I am now! I stayed at 29% all night!! I’m feeling really ready for some high flow today!

My tummy is feeling great and looks good too! I even had another big 💩 tonight, feels good to let that out! 🤗

My head is still nice and soft, not too full, not too sunken, juuuuuust right! 😎

I cannot wait to start nippling soon, I think it’s gunna be my new favorite thing to do! 😋

I slept really good all night, after my bath I was wore out! New sheets and snuggles is just what I wanted! 🥰

Well I don’t really have much more to report this morning mom and dad, which I think is a great thing! Belly ✅⭐️head ✅⭐️feedings ✅⭐️sats and O2 ✅⭐️ wow what a good report card I got! So for that I think I deserve extra snuggles today!

Love you both so much!
Always and forever
Asher 💙

4:15pm – Hospital: Dr Update

We are officially OFF of CPAP!!

Asher is officially a Hi Flow O2 baby! He is breathing ON HIS OWN! The next process is to wean the flow of oxygen down from 2L/min, down to 1.5L/min, down to 1L/min. At the point of weaning lower than 1L/min they’ll make a decision to go down either .5L/min or just room air…

This will be determined by his ABG and his over all stability…

Hi-satting on his new Hi Flow setup!! 🙌🏻

If you remember, both Hospitals said that Asher may need a tracheal tube to breathe…

According to Dr Lipsky today, “He’s cleared from needing the tracheal tube. It’s not even a discussion we’ll have to have”…

This is God’s mercy in full effect!

Also, once he gets down to 1.5L of O2, he’s no longer considered critical!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

His feeds are now down to a full feed (27mL) per hour. Next step is 27mL over 30min 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Next week a speech therapist will come in to test and evaluate Asher’s nippling ability. They’re working to coordinate it with us being here…

They also want to introduce real nipples during this time. It’s good practice for Asher and we’re hoping that he will be able to stimulate moms milk production a bit more…

Dr Lipsky said that they will give him up to 42 weeks gestation to develop his ability to suck, swallow and breathe simultaneously. If for some reason he can’t grasp it just yet, we’ll be having a conversation about him getting a G-Tube…

The G-Tube “is a bridge to get him home and is not a permanent solution”…

The G-tube will be his bridge to food while we continue to work on his coordination of suck, swallow, breathe…