Lela has the most expressive face! It's great fun to watch her grow - every day, she grows more alert and aware of her surroundings. Just yesterday, she started showing off her new-found rooting reflex:
Lela is still in the open-air bin. Her temp dropped a little bit, but she is still maintaining high 97-low 98 degrees so she stays in the open bin for now. She will complete her 7 day course of antibiotics by noon on Sunday and the doctor plans to remove her PIC line at that time. Her little leg didn't like the PIC line, so it will be a huge relief to get rid of it. Today, they started supplementing her breast milk bottles with a little bit of formula to provide a few extra calories per volume. This seems to be standard practice for preemies, who have higher caloric needs than their allotted volume of breast milk can provide. She's also doing better and better with breastfeeding. She is more alert and sucks more vigorously and for longer periods each time we "practice" breastfeeding. I still can't tell if she's getting much milk, but practice makes perfect. Plus, I still give her the full bottle after each practice session so any milk she does get is just extra milky goodness to fatten up my skinny baby! Most of the nurses are impressed that she even latches on and tries to feed. Apparently, this is not very common for preemies of her gestational age and her weight. My girl just likes to eat! She's still on course to go home next week, provided her temperature remains steady.
No comments:
Post a Comment