One Day Closer to Keira's Homecoming

Keira is continuing to do very well. She is 3 months old today and weighs 5 pounds 1 ounce! As of today she has a new home in the Special Care Unit and is no longer in Intensive Care. Her caffeine has been discontinued since she rarely has any apnea episodes anymore! (Caffeine is a drug very commonly used with preemies who have apnea of prematurity). Sorry Keira. No more morning coffee! She is still on oxygen but it's settings are pretty low. The only thing holding Keira back from being discharged are her feedings. She needs to be able to handle every feeding without use of her feeding tube. She's almost there. She is taking most of her feedings by bottle or breast, but still has a couple feedings through the tube because she gets too exhausted to do it herself. We're expecting her to work up the energy any day now to do all 8 feedings by herself.

As far as Keira's lungs go, there have been no new chest x-rays done. The doctors are assuming there is improvement of some kind since her oxygen need has lessened. But even if repeat x-rays show the same (or worse) diseased lung tissue, she would still be discharged based on all of her other accomplishments. In other words it would still be safe for her to come home, but on oxygen and with the recommendation for her to see a pulmonary specialist at CHOP.