Hooray for fish!!

Wednesday, April 15
WOW... Faith had an appointment with Dr. Puder this morning. The last few weeks Faith's bili numbers have been higher than they were when we got here. Her bloodwork from Thursday's appointment at the CAIR clinic came back with her total bilirubin at 10.8 and direct at 7.2, which was the spike we expected. This week though, we noticed that she is looking more and more pink, so we were excited to find out what her numbers would be this week.
So this morning, they drew her blood (from her line this time, since they had to poke her three times last week to do the peripheral draw, so we're going to alternate instead of torturing her every week). Dave and I went and got breakfast in the cafeteria while we waited for the labs to come back, and then they called us to come back to talk about them.
We got to Dr. Puder's office and the first thing he said was "Her direct is 4.6." It didn't even register with me, I thought he was talking to Danielle or Alexis, since they were in the office too... then I saw their excitement and I realized he was talking to me! Her TOTAL bilirubin this week is less than her direct was last week!!! Her total is at 7.1, and her direct is 4.6. To put it in perspective, we can go home when her direct gets to 2.0! He estimated probably another 2-3 weeks for that. Then we may still be here for a bit waiting for the Cisapride, if Dr. Duggan still thinks it's necessary. But then we can go home, and just come back every 2 months for follow-ups!
I have WAY more to update, but I've been really busy since Dave, my mom, and the boys are visiting. I will do that as soon as I can! Oh, and at her appointment last Thursday, they said I can nurse her 4 times a day! After almost 2 1/2 months of not nursing at all, she is back at it and doing great! :) Her continuous feeds are at 16 (they were 13 when we got here, we are increasing very slowly as she tolerates), she is off TPN now for 6 hours every day, and she is gaining weight well! It's all very exciting news and HUGE steps in the right direction!!
I will do a picture post in the next couple of days to show off our pretty pink girl :)