Ava's fourth week

Well, Ava's almost 4 weeks old anyway, but I was anxious to update on her progress. She's off her cannula. I am very excited about this for many reasons, but mostly because it just seemed uncomfortable and always hanging out of her nose anyway. They did a trial run yesterday to see if she would be able to handle it and she did well all day and through the night. Now you can see more of her cute face. I'll have to update with current pictures soon. She's also holding her own temperature which means that the lid to the incubator is open all the time so I can go in and hold her without having to make a big ordeal about getting the lid open and the monitors reset. She is also able to wear a onesie now and I was excited to be able to bring in her own clothes to give her some personality. Another big thing was that I was able to attempt to nurse her. They call it "recreational feeding" which cracks me up. I didn't have high hopes she'd do anything when presented with the recreation, but that girl surprised me. Today was her third time, and she latched on and sucked like a pro--for about 3 second intervals--and it's a huge step in the right direction but she needs to be able to get it all coordinated and that's going to take a while. With all this progress I'm eager to get her home. It's still a long way off, but I'm hoping she'll be able to come home sooner that her due date of January 19. We are so proud of our little peanut!