First Bottle

Tess has made it about two days without her nasal cannula helping her breathe, so today she was allowed to have her first bottle! Since I get to nurse, Paul won the privilege of feeding it to her. Here's nurse Carol teaching him how.

Feeding a preemie is more complex than it looks. Takes lots of concentration for Anna to coordinate sucking, swallowing and breathing - and just as much for Paul to monitor all of that at one time!

She was completely worn out after downing 10 milliliters. For now, she'll be offered one bottle a day (32mL), and once she can finish it for two consecutive days, she'll be offered two bottles a day. Once she finishes those for two days in a row, she'll go to three bottles. That continues till she gets to eight. Then, after all that trouble getting her to bottle-feed, we'll take her home and start trying our best to get her OFF bottles and nursing exclusively. Makes perfect sense. :)

Isn't she cute?!

In other news, she weighs 3lbs 9oz. - her weight gain is picking up after a slow start. So many answered prayers!