One month old!

"It is good to praise the Lord 

and make music to your name, O Most High,

proclaiming your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night, 

to the music of the ten-stringed lyre 

and the melody of the harp.

For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord;

How great are your works, Lord, 

how profound are your thoughts!"

-Psalm 92:1-5

Celia is a month old today!  Such a big milestone for a baby.  Especially a baby born premature AND with worst-case-scenario gastroschisis.  Today she celebrated with a few awesome developments:

The PIC line has officially been removed!  Celia now knows what it's like to have IV free arms and legs :).  This means that she can wear both sleeves in her clothes, too, making it much easier for her to sport the cute outfits the nurses have been snagging for us from the NICU.  One of Celia's nurses today also brought in a mobile to hang from her crib and she LOVES it and actually gets upset when it shuts off!  Another milestone Little One reached today is that she had her first real bath.

Celia, under a heat lamp, taking her first bath.

This evening or possibly tomorrow Celia will be starting a regiment of vitamins and iron.  Since she was born 5 weeks early, she missed out on the final transfer of nutrients that usually happens during that time, causing her to have low iron levels.  Please be in prayer that her iron levels increase.  Iron can possibly irritate her intestines and we don't want them to work any harder than they have to! The vitamins are required to treat any damage that has been caused by the TPN.  Her liver has shown some minor signs of distress, but doctors have said this is nothing to be worried about.  We would appreciate prayers that the damage will be minimal and that tests will show normal liver function so she won't have to be on them very long.  All of this news is great, however, and we are so thankful for the hospital staff who are doing a great job of managing Celia's care.

Big one-month-old!

As far as feeding goes, Celia is at her full recommended volume of 57mL.  She drinks four bottles and is fed through her feeding tube twice each day.  Her weight gain has not been as consistent and rapid as most babies, but she is following a growth curve.  Please pray that Celia continues to eat well and gain weight each day!  This is something doctors are optimistic about, though it still needs to be monitored closely to make sure she will be ready to go home soon.  It's a bit more difficult for her to gain weight when it isn't directly being put into her body - she has to actually work for it now!