a picture of all the medications Milagros was once receiving after surgery

This past Saturday Milagros achieved another major milestone. Breast milk, la leche ! Milagros was administered through her stomach feeding tube a small dose of the breast milk that Chayo has been diligently pumping and saving at the Ronald McDonald house freezer for the past 45 days. Interestingly enough the doctors have started to use the milk in chronological order, so the milk from the first day Chayo pumped has been given to Milagros first. The colostrum is apparently so much stronger on the first few days and very important to Milagros's first experiences with breast milk. The power of a woman's body are amazing ! Milagros now has been on an increasing dosage of breast milk the last 4 days and has consistent stools and has been gaining weight. The Doctors strategy is to very slowly wean Milagros off of all of her sedatives, pain killers, oxygen support, lung medications and IV fluids, while increasing the breast milk. The doctors attempted to do this aggressively after the surgery and she did not respond well, so they had to start all over again, it has been quite the roller coaster ride.  Milagros is currently on about 60% oxygen support on the ventilator which means she is still receiving a lot of oxygen support and is not near being able to breathe on her own. They have however been able to wean her off one pain killer, half of her nitric oxide dosage, sedatives, and ventilator pressure and rate, she has been showing slow but steady progress.