Day 19, Afternoon

We just visited Hannah and she's still going strong. Her ventilator rate has been lowered a bit, so she's processing more oxygen with fewer breaths. The nurse says a preemie her age will typically require two or three more weeks on the ventilator, but of course the word "typical" is not one you can hang your hat on in the NICU. Her oxygen level is down around 25%, which is getting pretty close to normal room level, which is 21%. Compared to the 70-100% she required a week ago, this is good level to be at.

Assuming everything else remains stable, they'll try sending some nutrition through her digestive tract early next week. Right now, she's getting all her nutrition directly into her bloodstream via IV. They'll do a "test run" of some liquid nutrient fed to her stomach through a tube, then see if that passes all the way through as expected. If so, the next goal would be small amounts of milk, and over time transitioning from IV nutrition to ingested milk.