Breathing Free!

Hannah's been off the oxygen for about a day and a half now. Last night was the first night that she kept herself above 92% (blood oxygen saturation) without the cannula, and that's the magic number that the respiratory therapist said we need to maintain. She stays above 94% during the day easily enough, often hitting 100%, but when she's in a deep sleep, her oxygenation tends to drop two or three points.

We still keep her connected to the oxygenation monitor at night, but during the day, we just do spot checks when she falls asleep. After a few nights of cannula-free sleep, we might be brave enough to go overnight without the monitor. That will be a challenge, because after three months, we've gotten used to the security of knowing that if Hannah stops breathing for any reason, however unlikely, the machine will tell us within a few seconds. As much as we curse the bleeping machine when it gives us a false alarm, we both wake up several times each night and glance over at the monitor, which tells us with a big yellow number that Hannah is doing fine. Without the monitor, we'll probably both be getting out of bed every few minutes to walk over and make sure she's still breathing and pink. But then, all new parents probably do that for a few days. We've just had a three month reprieve.

The developmental specialist that saw Hannah yesterday confirmed that she's doing great, on par with other infants of her adjusted age. This means that compared to full-term babies born around Hannah's original due date, she's right where she needs to be as far as behavior, weight, and size. She's technically six months old, but since she was born over three months early, she compares roughly to a three-month old. The only thing she really noted was that Hannah's head was flatter on the right side, so we need to encourage her to sleep with her head to the left.