Nine days

When Maddy was born, she spent her first 124 days in NICU. Four months and two days. She was discharged straight from NICU and never spent any time in the special care baby unit (SCBU - an area for babies with less serious needs who are closer to being discharged).

Yesterday, I got a call from the hospital - they "graduated" Briella from the NICU to SCBU. So in total, she only spent nine days in the NICU! 

The day Briella was born, the doctor said to Bernard "Don't expect things to be the same as they were for Maddy. You have to realise that Maddy was our first case of diastrophic dysplasia so we were still learning. But now, Briella is our SECOND case!" - cracked me up... with one child, we doubled their experience ;) 

Briella is still in the hospital and continually doing better and better with her oral feedings. Two days ago, she could take 30mL, yesterday she took 45mL at one feed, and then when I was there, I fed her 55mL before she spat it up all over both of us ;) The goal is that she can take up to 60mL for all 8 of her feeds - however they may let her go home if she is doing well enough. Maddy was only taking about 70% of her daily goal when she was discharged three years ago. With the improvements that I see, it is entirely possible that she will be home next week. 

I keep pinching myself to remind myself that it is real. After our experience with Maddy, I hadn't even imagined that things could go this smoothly. Apart from one frustration with one of the nurses, I haven't had any issues with anything at all this time around - compared with last time where it felt like a fight from about day three... 

My parents and sister will be coming over to Hong Kong for Christmas - they get here on December 13. I think the odds aren't bad that Briella will be home before they get here :) That will be nice...