A Very Good Day

Saturday morning we were greeted with great news from Olive's doctors and nurses. She would be getting another tube out! Olive had a UAC which is an umbilical arterial catheter. Since it is put in thru the umbilical cord, it is painless for Ollie while giving the doctors a constant blood pressure read and a pain free site to draw blood for labs. It also meant that she had to be more sedentary and we had to try to keep her belly uncovered at all times so we could make sure the line was okay. 

The really good news?! Now that it is out, we can hold her whenever we want! Including skin to skin contact, which helps with bonding, soothing and her healing. 

Mama & Papa holding Olive for the first time post-op

As if we weren't already over the moon with all of these steps forward, we then got the news that Olive was going to start receiving mama's milk! Since yesterday morning she has been fed a steady drip of colostrum that is run straight to her belly thru her repaired esophagus, by way of a tube they inserted to help keep everything healing correctly. Right now she is receiving just 2.5ml per hour, but that will increase as her tummy grows and becomes accustomed to finally  having food in it! Andrea keeps pumping around the clock to ensure that Olive won't go hungry anytime soon :)

After a long day of happiness Ollie's nurse taught us how to give her a sponge bath, working around her last 3 tubes (down from 8!!) It feels so great to start doing all the things parents probably take for granted- like changing diapers and giving baths!

Tomorrow morning will kick off another big day with a contrast test at 9:00 am. This will tell us if their are any leaks where her esophagus was repaired. If there aren't, then there will be even more good news to follow! So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we keep "sprinting" forward!