See ya later, vapotherm!

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this week! We spent the morning with Charlotte and took her 3 month pictures in her pretty new outfits. It is amazing how far we have come from the day Charlotte was born. She is 6 pounds now! The speech therapist performed a swallow study and found out that Charlotte has been aspirating her milk. This means that instead of the milk going down her esophagus, it is going down her airway and into her lungs. They believe that this is happening for several reasons: 1) because Charlotte was intubated with a ventilator, her vocal cords are irritated 2) because she has severe reflux, her esophagus and vocal cords are irritated 3) she needs more time to mature due to being born very early. They have moved her feeding tube lower into her intestines in order to bypass her stomach. This will prevent her from having reflux and allow her esophagus and vocal cords to heal. Since moving her tube, her breathing has also improved, because now Charlotte isn't refluxing food into her lungs. This is allowing her lungs to heal and work more efficiently. The doctors decided to put her on a nasal cannula which is a lower flow of oxygen. Hopefully with less breathing support, Charlotte's lungs will get stronger. This is the last step before she can breathe on her own. They are going to repeat her swallow study in 2 weeks to see if she can swallow milk correctly. We also completed our first March of Dimes Walk this week! We walked on team Caleb Mason. Our friend Katelyn had a son prematurely, and he has been receiving care at the University of Maryland. It was so nice to be surrounded by friends and families who have also gone through the experience of having a child prematurely. If you ever get the chance to participate in this wonderful event, I encourage you to donate towards a great cause! The March of Dimes Organization helps moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies. If something goes wrong, they offer information and comfort to families. They research the problems that threaten babies and work on preventing them. The March of Dimes also funds lifesaving research and speaks out for legislation that improves care for moms and babies.