Zoey keeps packing on the grams

Mommy is writing today and there is good news to share. Zoey had an overall good day. She has also been gaining weight steadily the past few days. Remember, 30 grams a day is her goal to gain daily. In the past few days she gained 30 grams, then 60 grams, then 90 grams, and in the past 24 hours, she gained 120 grams. 120 GRAMS!!! That's huge how it keeps going up since adding the TPN back in! This puts her weight at 3.59 pounds. Hopefully this will get her back to that 5 pound marker to do surgery. We're still focusing on baby steps of course and not rushing things with her. But I guess she listened when we told her a couple days ago that since her breathing is going well that she is to keep that up but now she needs to focus on gaining weight. I hope she listens this well forever! :-)

My parents, Allen and Krista, came to visit again today since Grandpa hasn't seen Zoey in a couple of weeks. I think he was going through withdrawals. They came while we were doing Kangaroo Care so they got to see her out and peacefully resting on Mommy. Ray helped put her back in and got her dressed so they were also able to see her awake and alert and looking around at all the sights that her brain is starting to process. It's interesting watching her try and track with her eyes when she hears voices and other noises.

On another positive note, if she keeps breathing well, they want to bring her from 1 liter of flow down to .5 liters tomorrow. She's again breathing right around room air so is requiring little help there. Everyday it seems her lungs keep growing stronger. She still has apnea spells where she forgets to breath and scares Mommy since she did this 3 times during Kangaroo care. She must have just been so comfortable and relaxed that she was forgetting to breathe but she bounces back pretty quickly and on her own which is a major positive because we don't have to alert her to breathe again, she figures it out on her own everytime. The nurses say this is a good sign that she doesn't have to be prompted to start breathing again.

I also wore Ray out this morning by spending more time at a store getting registered. We are now going to have to go through both lists and delete items that were accidentally scanned or that are duplicates that we didn't intend on being duplicates. We decided this would be easier online managing it as opposed to trying to scan and delete in the store. What an overwhelming experience even with the guidance we had. As first time parents it's interesting trying to figure out what items your child will need. Thankfully we had some guidance from relatives but it's still a lot to figure out.
Tomorrow is bittersweet for me since I know I will have to say goodbye to Zoey for a few days. Hoping my time with her tomorrow goes by very slowly and my work hours go by quickly so I can hurry and get back here. Zoey--Daddy time will be able to continue now more than him just holding her for a short time before my kangaroo time with her starts. He's so good at letting me hog the kangaroo time when I'm in town and for that I'm very greatful and appreciative! Helps get me through my days away from Zoey.

On a final note, we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for the continued support. I'm amazed that we're still getting cards, gifts mailed, notes and messages, and hand delivered items after all this time. We are incredibly greatful and so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful and generous people. We also know people are following the blogs closely and anxiously waiting for updated pictures. We think she is so special to have such a following of so many wonderful people. So that ended up being lots of words but in a reader's digest version we say THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone for everything!!! None of it has gone unnoticed!