Taking a Closer Look

Evvie sported her "cool sunglasses" (as her biggest sister, Sylvia, says) for two days.  We were happy to arrive at the hospital Sunday afternoon and find that she was no longer the "blue light special" of the NICU.  Her bili count did climb a little today, but not enough to warrant any concern.  We were told that we are in the holding phase right now.  She just needs to grow a bit more and be able to bottle enough food and then she will be ready to come home.  She will not be home for Thanksgiving, like I had originally hoped, but she should be ready to come home at some point this coming weekend.  But aren't those some cool shades?  Let's take a closer look . . .

As I said, Evvie needs to be able to take enough food from a bottle before she is ready to come home.  She did really well today, nippling most of her feedings and needing only small "leftovers" put through her tube.  Dave is demonstrating this feeding technique, called gavage feeding.  But let's take a closer look and see what Evvie thinks . . .

Hmmm . . .  I'm not sure what she thinks, but I do think she looks tired and isn't too sure about the tube in her nose.  Let's see what bottle feeding with Daddy looks like:

You may notice that Evvie is lying on her side while Dave is feeding her.  Preemies are best fed when held in this position.  It allows the milk to pool in the side of their cheek, giving them a little more time to swallow and decreasing the amount of sputtering and choking that may occur.  Taking a closer look again we can see that Evvie is very happy and content with her bottle feeding:

Truth be told, she was a little too happy and content.  Very shortly after this she had fallen into a deep sleep and could not be roused to finish her bottle and we had to commence with the G-tube feeding.  This is what happens with preemies, they work so hard to suck, swallow, breathe that they often pass out before they can finish their feeding.  But with a little more time, she will put on more weight and gain more energy and then she will probably be sucking down bottles like they were chocolate milk.

And I spent some quality time with Evvie today, teaching her a very important skill:

Yes, we were knitting together.  I am nearly finished with her entire layette set (cardigan, pants, hat, headband, booties, and stuffed animal) and I figured, as she came so early, she could at least help me complete her goodies.

And what is that?  Do I have a born lover of fiber lying on my lap?  Let's take a closer look:

Why, yes . . . Yes, I do!