My First Nipple Feeding

After we got home from touring a NG plant we dropped William off at a friend's house and headed back to the hospital. When we got there the nurse informed us that Abby was doing great and hadn't vomited any of her milk up. Yes! She's really doing much better since getting off formula and getting on breast milk. She's still under the the Bili lights, but they're expecting her to be off those within a day or two.


The nurse also said that Abby was going to be nipple fed by the PTOT, so if we wanted to stick around for that, we could learn how to feed her. She didn't have to say that twice! The PT, turns out, is the same one that worked with William when he was in the NICU two years ago! Anyway, she showed me how to hold her properly, support her chin, and get the bottle in her mouth. It was amazingly difficult, believe it or not, since she really doesn't have a clue how to suck. She was thoroughly bored with the whole ordeal, but she caught on quickly and drank about 19cc, out of a 34cc feeding. The rest had to be gavaged, but it was still progress! It was so great to be able to participate in her feeding. The nurse said that since she did so great at it that they were going to up her nipple feedings to once a shift, or twice in a 24 hour period. I asked about nursing her, and they said that I could start that in a day or so. Some babies do much better at the breast than they do at the bottle. (I have lots of video of that that I'll post over on my other site.) But as you can see, she was very alert this afternoon! We're getting anxious to get her home!