Week 31, Day 6, Learning to Breathe

Look Ma! No Tubes!


Hannah had another busy day. She's been taken off the breathing tube and put on CPAP (continuous positive air pressure), which allows her to take all the breaths on her own, but maintains a constant airway pressure in her nostrils to make it easier for her to draw breath and keep her lungs from deflating too much. This is a potential step toward breathing without assistance, but if she appears to be working too hard at it after a day or so, they'll put her back on the breathing tube and try again later.

One downside of CPAP is that it isn't very attractive. The nasal prongs, tubes, and harness holding it all in place covers up the top half of her face, so we can't see her as well as before. She still has a feeding tube in her mouth, but it is small enough that she has a tiny pacifier as well. If all goes well, she might be able to graduate to a simple nasal cannula for oxygen after a few weeks. But that will require her to grow and expand her lungs.

Speaking of which, she gained another ounce today, so she's up to 3 lbs 1 oz. The nurse snapped a couple of photos after they removed the breathing tube and before they attached the CPAP rig (we weren't there when they did all this), so we'd have a record of what Hannah looks like without tubes and wires. Not a flattering picture, but we all have occasional bad hair days. Fortunately, we don't have hair all over our face, like poor little Hannah. The fine white hair, which tends to show up most with a flash, is lanugo, which usually disappears before or just after birth.