Day 17

The breathing continues without any issues. I wish I was better at celebrating these things, but fortunately we have our supporters to yell and dance when God does good things!

Talia had no breathing problems overnight and Jan for once has a good surprise when she went in to the NICU this morning to find that Talia has been promoted from the critical section to the section for babies who are breathing on their own (mind you, it is confusing when you can't find your own baby!).

She has been putting more effort into the breathing, but hopefully this is simply due to her size and need to have more milk to build strength. The great news is there have been no Apneas occuring at all to this point - only some shallowness of breathing at times, which is quite normal.

Talia spent much of the day Kangaroo Cuddling with Jan again (skin to skin) which is wonderful, but she did sleep most of the day until Uncle Eric showed up and Talia decided to wake up somewhat. She is now having 4ml of milk every 3 hours, which is a lot for her - and she managed to poo twice today, which is very exciting.

This is more exciting than any normal situation, since it shows her digestive system is working correctly as this is an area of risk.

Even more brilliant was to see the nurse put some liquid on a cotton bud and see Talia sucking on it furiously. This means she has a sucking instinct - another area of previous concern!

Praise God - this has been a great day and we desire to see His Presence powerfully in the NICU - not just touching Talia's little body, but meeting the needs of the other babies also!