Cannula free is the way to be!!!

That's right!  Olivia is now breathing room air entirely on her own!  AMAZING!  I've been nervous and hesitant to post about this development as I am most things regarding Olivia because we keep being warned that often preemies take one step forward and two steps back.  I keep bracing myself for the two steps back, or God forbid a complete fall.  But, so far Olivia continues to move in the right direction!   She is now 2 pounds 8 ounces and is almost 6 weeks old.  She also had her gavage (feeding tube) moved from her mouth to her nose in preparation for nipple feeding.  We'll begin seeing if she is ready for it sometime next week.  Her readiness depends on the development of her gag, suck and swallow reflexes and the ability to coordinate those reflexes while continuing to breathe!  Sounds exhausting to me! :)  Who knew being so damn cute requires so much effort?!?!?!

In other AWESOME news...Jeremy will be promoted on July 1st!  He is being promoted to Staff Sergeant, E6!!!  We are SO proud of him!  CONGRATS DADDY!!!   Now come home, damnit!!! :)

Brayden is in summer school on M/W/F mornings which he LOVES!!  I also love it because that means I get to be with Olivia for almost 3.5 uninterrupted hours.  I then pick up a very happy and exhausted boy who comes home and naps!!!  Its heaven.  My aunt and uncle have been watching Brayden in the evenings which allows me to go back to the NICU.  I'd eventually like to be at the NICU every three hours for each of her feedings and I'm having a hard time accepting that it just isn't possible.  The NICU nurses keep urging me to take advantage of this time and all the 24 hour care she receives there.  But its hard when she is MY baby, and I want to do everything myself!!!  Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful for the NICU and the staff.  However, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to let anyone else hold her for about a month after she comes home.  So there!  :)

(She still has the cannula in this pic, but I  just LOVE the cutie outfit)