3 Weeks Old - 1 Pound Bigger

Sleeping Angel

Hannah is already 3 weeks old...so hard to believe how time is just marching on. She has already put on a full pound from her birth weight. As of her weigh-in last night, she was 4lb. 8oz., and when she was weighed tonight, she was actually up to 4lb. 10oz. She's getting to be a big girl and is doing quite well.

Hannah has been on oxygen since she was moved to the open crib (she could do without it in the incubator, but was too warm...after they moved her to the open crib, she struggled with keeping her numbers up when laying on her back), but otherwise is progressing well. Later this week the plan is to try to get her to take one of her feedings from a bottle. However, the nurse tonight said she might try to get her to start the bottle sooner -- maybe even tomorrow. Hannah did a great job today during her "practice nursing" session with me; she actually managed to get some milk into her belly (and onto her face and mom's belly too - her lips don't form a good "seal" with a tube in her mouth!). During the tube feedings after her nursing time this morning she did a great job sucking on her pacifer (they try to give a pacifier during tube feedings so the babies learn that they need to work to get a full belly), so the nurse thinks she might be ready to try a bottle so they can evaluate her "suck power" a little more.

Once she can take two feedings from a bottle they will move her feeding tube from her mouth to her nose (which will make breast & bottle feeding easier, we hope). But, to move the tube she also has to be back off of oxygen, so there are lots of things that need to line up, but we are happy with her progress so far.

Here are some more pictures from this evening:

As you can see, she is quite active in her little crib, and she is starting to be much more alert when it is time to eat. She used to pretty much sleep through all of her feedings, but now she wakes up in advance of them and will start to look around and let you know that she is ready to eat...she will keep us on our toes when she comes home!