evening visit

Today I took the day off from visiting the hospital and let Stephanie and Jereane go have a girls' day out.  But after dinner I decided I would go down there and visit Sophie by myself.  I got there just after 8 and just before bathtime.  Woohoo.  She was pitching a fit when I arrived because the nurse was taking her temperature (under her arm), which she does not like (the other way she likes even less, naturally).  But she was relatively calm during the bath, which surprised all of us, I think.  Then she got plopped on the scale and weighed in at 1805g, which is 3lb 15 2/3 oz.  So she should be 4lb by tomorrow night!  She gained 40g today, which is almost 1.5oz.  The nurse said that once they start eating and are getting the extra protein/calorie powder in their milk, they can put on up to 100g a day!  We can't expect this every day, but it is nice to see and plus the doctor says it is not due to fluid retention this time.    So that's a relief

Then I got to try to bottle feed her.  We've been trying this the last few days, but it's slow going so far.  It's all new to her and she's still just getting to the age where she can be expected to coordinate the different movements.  Plus, there's restrictions: she can only try it once during the day and once at night, so she doesn't get too tired; and her breathing can't be too fast (over 70bpm) or they won't let her.  Her breathing is still pretty high, but the doctor said it's common with preemies and as her lungs continue to develop and expand, the rate should go down.  So far, she's managed to get a little bit (3-4mL) from the bottle, but then just spits it out.  Tonight the nurse gave me some more pointers and she did a lot better.  Over 30mins we managed to get her to take 15mL (1 tbsp)!  Granted, a lot of it ended up on the napkins, but I think she probably got some of it down because she would cough and sputter sometimes. 

I held her while the remainder of the milk was given through her feeding tube.  After all of this, she was pretty tuckered out and just slept for the rest of the time I was there.