Day 89

This first photo of Max and Alice is not from today, but from two days ago (Monday - Day 87). It was Max's first day of preschool and then we packed a picnic lunch and he came to the hospital with me. Thought I'd see how he'd do and he did just fine (because of the "picnic" and there's a TV that can play Treehouse Cartoons - thank goodness for Diego!). Max wanted to hold his sister, and here's the photo of him doing so. He's a proud big brother (but don't call him a big brother yet cuz in his mind he's not a big brother until Alice comes home).

Alice's weight last night was around 6 pounds 7 ounces. So she's got no problem in the weight and size department. Her desats and dips seem to be getting fewer and fewer. I've now changed the way I'm feeding her - instead of a cradle position in the arms, she's in the football hold - so almost sitting up at my side and facing me and breast feeding. This way if she gets too big of a mouthful the milk can spill out the sides of her mouth rather than filling her mouth up and then she can't breathe. It's worked well.

These pictures are from this morning. She's so alert it's kind of weird. I was asking the nurse about her alertness as her personality is starting to come through in facial expressions. And yes, even though she is a preemie, she is 3 months old now so will have some traits of a 3 month old babe as well as that of a preemie. So I was getting smiles and pursed lips. Very cute!

The goal now is to get rid of her NG (the tube that's in her nose and sends the food to her tummy). The nurses got permission from the doctor to start her on-demands feed (which means when she's hungry she gets fed) - and that's either from me or from the bottle. Today I went in and fed her at 9:15am. She woke at 12:45 for her next feed and was given a bottle (with 90 cc's). Because of this large feed we figured she'd be up around 4:30 or 5:00. WRONG! At 6pm I went to the hospital and she was still sound asleep - so mummy was mean and put cold hands on her to start the wake-up process. Which kind of worked, but the bath definately work her. No later visit tonight as she probably won't wake until 10pm (and that's my bedtime).

So we'll see what tomorrow brings with the demand feeds and how long she goes between feeds. At this rate, she'll be coming home trained at 4 hour feeds (vs. the 3 hour feeds that newborns are usually at) - yay for us!

Alice also had a hearing test yesterday (which all preemies get) and she passed it. She goes for a final eye test on January 12th at Children's (ambulance ride both ways) - it should be fine as she's done fine with the previous eye tests, but it must be done and Lion's Gate doesn't do it.