1st Bottle

When I went to the hospital yesterday, I found out that at her 2am feeding Hannah took her first bottle! Although she is now up to 39mL per feeding, her 2am bottle was still at 38mL (that's a little more than an ounce). The nurse saved her bottle for me, and let me know that Hannah took the whole thing and did a really good job. To give you an idea of how small this bottle is, the bottle only holds 60mL.

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!

Grandma Folger Turns 60

My mom turned 60 on February 5th.

I didn't get her a present (although my family hasn't been big on birthday presents as we've gotten older, so that's not totally unusual), didn't call her, and didn't even send a card.....at least I sent an e-mail acknowledging her birthday, but boy was I an awful daughter.

This weekend my parents came to the house because my mom was hoping to see Hannah again. While at the house, my parents did all of our laundry (which hadn't been done since their last visit), cleaned up stuff for us, and my dad made us a huge pot of vegetable soup to get us through the week. They had only planned on coming Saturday, but when I told my mom how much laundry there was, they came Friday night just so she could start the laundry! What great parents I have.

At any rate, to make up for my lack of "birthday-ness", I gave my mom what may be the best present I had to give -- she got to hold her granddaugher for the first time. She was very excited and I'm sure that holding Hannah more than made up for any gift, call, or card from me. Some pictures from our Saturday visit are posted below.

Grandma Folger is loving every minute.

Grandpa Folger held Hannah for a quick minute before heading back to WV.

Mommy holds her girl to show off Hannah's long legs.

What an afternoon....Hannah is tired and ready for her nap!

2 Weeks Old - In an Open Crib

Our little 4 lb. burrito waves "hello"

Today Hannah is two weeks old. It's hard to believe that I would be in the beginning of my 8th month of pregnancy if I were still pregnant.

When we got to the hospital this afternoon we found out that Hannah was "graduating" to an open air crib -- she did such a good job maintaining her own temperature that she was too warm in her incubator with the air and humidity turned all the way down. Typically they wait until a baby can take feedings from a bottle before moving them to an open crib so they can conserve energy for feedings as they learn to suck/eat on their own, so this is a bit of an experiment to see how she does, but they felt the time was right since she was so warm in the incubator. We've been warned that she may ultimately need to go back in the incubator, but we'll wait and see how she does.

Hannah has also moved into another room in the NICU. Jon and I aren't totally crazy about the room because it's not a private room anymore where we can hang out all day and have some privacy/comfort -- it's a small room with about 7-8 babies in it (pretty close quarters). It's supposed to be a good thing because they only move stable babies to this new room, but it is less comfortable to be there for extended periods of time. Even the pumping room isn't nearly as comfortable. Her old room had a closet for family storage, a rocker/recliner, a window with curtains, and a sink/counter (great for cleaning pump parts). This new room has a computer chair by each crib and a small counter for her chart-- no windows and only one rocker for all the parents to share. Hopefully we won't have to be in this new room for long, but we're still expecting for Hannah to be in the hospital another 4 weeks.

Wearing Clothes for the 1st Time

Hannah is doing quite well. She is already up to 3lb, 13oz!!! She is certainly doing her job of growing. She is taking about an ounce of milk at each feeding, and we just started to introduce her to the "concept" of breastfeeding. She likely won't get any real nutrition directly from me (other than through pumping) for another week or so, but she is learning how to suck. Hannah has also been able to maintain her body temperature, so they are turning down the temperature in her incubator (and lowering the humidity too). Since she has maintained so well, she is now able to wear clothes. Here is a picture of her in her first outfit!

Daddy loves his little girl!

Now that she can maintain her temperature better, we can hold her for longer periods of time. I think Jon and I alternated holding her for about 5 hours today. It's the best feeling in the world.