Our first not great day

Today was our first 'Bad Day'. And to be perfectly honest, I do not think it was that bad of a day, but it was the first day there wasn't real progress. Occasionally, Natalie has been 'desaturating,' this is normal and expected of a preemie. Her heart rate falls very low and then it comes back up. The good news has always been that she can get it to come back up without assistance. Today it happened more often than usual and a couple of times it took a few minutes to return to normal. They said she is OK, but it was really scary to sit there and watch. The 2 times it took awhile to return, the nurse went and got the Doctor, which of course made us more concerned.

They still consider her doing absolutely excellent so far. They have warned us since the beginning that it will be a long few months of taking steps forward and the occasional step back. Luckily, we did not have to make any changes that could be considered a step back. The only thing they decided to do was give her an extra dose of caffeine. They think she is just really tired from breathing on her own and some of the tests they ran this morning.

I know we will have bad days that are much worse than today and we have been incredibly lucky that everything has been going so well. We are very positive because they are still so happy with her progress and comment on how strong she is. We are very proud of our tough girl.

We had to make the decision around 5pm whether to go home or stay overnight. The hospital urged us to go home, that she would be OK and we would be back tomorrow night after the snow was cleaned up. It was a hard decision, but we know she is literally in one of the best NICU's in the entire country and trust them to take care of her.

Here she is being cozy -