Picture from today

Emilia sleeping on her arm.
She is cuter in real life than in pictures. I don't think she is all that photogenic.
The white patches on her face are NOT bandages. They are just tapes to hold her oxygen cannula. Supposedly this white tape is easier on the skin than the clear tapes. Too bad all her pictures now show two white patches on her cheeks.

10 weeks later

A picture of Emilia in the incubator when she was a week old (Jun 6).



This is Emilia in her incubator, 10 weeks later (Aug 19).

Emilia is 39 weeks gestation age

Emilia is 39 weeks gestation age. Next Thursday is my expected due date. I have always been saying that she would come home on my due date but this obviously won't happen. She probably will stay in hospital at least two weeks after the due date.

She now weighs 3.2Kg (over 7 lbs). We bought a bouncy chair and a bath tub for her.
She sits in the chair for a while after meals (to help relieve her from reflux problems). She seems to enjoy bath these days. She doesn't look too nervous any more, although she cries for the first few seconds when she gets dipped into the bath water. Her hair is pretty much the same length as before. I am not sure why her hair does not grow while her nails grow very fast. She is better at breastfeeding now. She is doing everything a little newborn is supposed to be doing: eating, sleeping, pooing, looking around, and even cooing a little (usually after breastfeeding and when I am holding her).

I spoke to the doctors and they decided to wean her from oxygen. Now she gets about 75 cc/min of oxygen. Eventually she will need to come off oxygen and become
"spell-free" but I don't know if that will ever happen.... looks like the real trial starts now. I thought the first month was the hardest part of this journey but I now realize the final few weeks is the toughest part that really requires a lot of patience and hope. Also physically it's wearing me down: I need to be at the hospital longer because of breastfeeding. I should have rested more in the earlier months.

Emilia is 90 days old

Yes, she is already 90 days old. In gestation, she's 38 weeks and 5 days.
She is a term baby now, but of course, she is not exactly like a term baby yet. She still needs supplemental oxygen. We are breastfeeding 3 times a day. Her reflux problems have improved past few days. No spell or oxygen desaturation today, which is a good sign. She weighs 3.18Kg. That is almost 7 lbs.

The doctors are telling me she will likely come home on oxygen. I don't mind bringing her home with an oxygen tank if that is what she needs but I am upset because the doctors have already decided that she will need supplemental oxygen even before trying to wean. She needed about 40 cc/minute of oxygen but because of her reflux problems and spells, the doctor ordered to keep her at 75 cc/minute of oxygen last week. And on the weekend, the doctor ordered to keep her at 125 cc/minute because "that is the minimum setting for home oxygen and she will be going home with home oxygen". I wonder how they determine which baby will go home with oxygen and which one will not. For a baby like Emilia who needs just a little bit of supplemental oxygen, why wouldn't they give her time and chance to be off low flow? Why would they choose to pump in more oxygen than she needs and tell me to take her home on an oxygen tank? I tried to talk about this with a few different doctors and I still haven't got a clear explanation.