Ruby Hope McKee Starling

Ruby has been out in the real world for over a week now.  She's doing great.  She's able told her head up more.  She's even tolerating tummy time a bit better.  She's also treated her parents to several blow-out diapers, spitting up, and the ever popular pulling out of the NG tube, which she did three times yesterday.  Here she is all proud of herself for pulling it out:

 You can see how far down into her tummy it actually goes!  (The blunt end goes into her tummy, the end with the bright yellow cap is where we inject the milk).

The NG tube is a necessary thing.  It's the reason she is gaining weight.  We are working on PO (by mouth) feeding her.  We try at all the feeds except midnight, 3am, and 6am.  Mostly because she is asleep for those feeds.  She sleeps from 10pm to 8 am all on her own.  Please don't tell her how wonderful this is, she might decide to stop.  With each feed she takes any where from 15-35ml by mouth.  We then have to give her the rest of the 80ml through the tube.  We can't get rid of the tube until she is taking ALL of her feeds by mouth.  Right now that seems almost impossible.  She is getting better though.  It used to be that we had to stop a PO feed becasue she was breathing too hard.  Now she just seems to get bored with it.  She will even fall asleep and then miraculously wake up giggling 5 minutes later when the milk is going through the tube.  She's a smart one.   She is doing great for a baby who was intubated and on ECMO for as long as she was.  In fact, she's ahead of the curve in that respect.  As a family we'll keep working on the PO feeds.  At least this is a problem that Chris and I can directly help with.

She is also rolling and scooting around a lot.  We can put her in her crib in one position and wake-up to find her on the other side on her tummy.  She has also started rolling and reaching for her pacifier when she wants it.  She can even grab it.  She doesn't always get the right part in her mouth, but she tries.  She has found her thumb, too.  In fact, she loves to suck on her hands VERY loudly.  It's one way to tell she's awake in the morning.  She is also talking a lot more.  Chris and I set her in her bouncy seat while we eat dinner.  She will babble and smile with us while we eat. 

We've got a busy weekend planned!  We're going to "The Shore"  as the locals call it.  It will also hopefully be our last weekend in Philadelphia.