Merry Christmas everyone from our family to yours! We sincerely hope everyone enjoyed this wonderful time of the year surrounded by friends and family. We are especially grateful for friends and family this year, and even more so for the beautiful gift of God that made us parents. We anticipate the day when we can bring our Olivia home in the new year!
We surprised our parents with a precious ornament of the photo shoot we did of Olivia (see above picture and the two below). Her sweet nurse got very into it and even pulled Olivia's feeding tube out so we could get pictures of her without it in. And then to our utter amazement, our little girl took so well to the bottle that within a few days of having the tube back in, it was pulled again and now she has been eating on her own for the past week or so all by the bottle. Just another amazing step to bringing her home with us.
Olivia says check me out taking my bottle like a champ. She is most alert when we begin her bottle and slowly she starts to get tired and more tired until she is asleep shortly after finishing her bottle. She is now offered 40 ml in each bottle and can drink as much as she wants, but she has to get at least 18 ml per feed or she would eventually get the feeding tube back. (If she goes 3 or more feeds without getting 18 ml, they would put it back in). So far, she is crushing the challenge and taking anywhere from 22 all the way up to the full 40 ml per feeding. So she is doing great with the bottle.
This past Friday, we were able to start trying to nurse. She is a little unsure of this so far. Without going into too much detail, she has to work a little harder to get the milk she wants (her bottle will drip it into her mouth if she does not suck enough), so she is slow to start, but has latched a few times and will work at it for a little bit. We only get to try for about 10 minutes a day, because again the concern is that she would burn more calories trying to get her food than she would actually take in, so we are thankful for the times we get to try. She seems to have the hang of nursing and our hope is that by the time she comes home, she will be much better at it. Often it takes until 36 weeks gestation to get the hang of it. Olivia is still just 34 weeks gestation, so she is again ahead of the curve, but this is a good reminder that she can take her time getting the hang of it.
The more we see of her face, the more and more people think she looks just like her daddy. I think they are both so cute, so I am happy to be surrounded by all these sweet faces. Marc and I are taking advantage of more snuggle time as she is still out of her isolette. And in true Olivia fashion, she surpassed her 4 pound goal and she is now 4 pounds 5 ounces! Dad is so happy about her 4 pound goal too:
It is really crazy to think that she is over a month old and was still supposed to be in my belly for the next 8ish weeks. So we are really loving the early snuggles and anticipating the day when she gets to come home. But also super scared about that most likely being right in the middle of cold and flu season with a baby that has basically no immune system. Marc and I are trying our best to wash hands diligently and stay well through this season of colds, as we know if either of us is sick, it means a hiatus from seeing our sweet baby girl. If the NICU has taught us anything, it is definitely the importance of hand washing (since we have to do it for 3 minutes each time we go to see her). hehe
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