This week Ella will be 35 weeks gestation on Tuesday and 8 weeks on Wednesday.
It has been a very busy week for Ella. She started feeding 1 week ago. We have tried breast and bottle. It seems almost impossible to try breast when I am at work during the week. I have been making more visits on the weekdays but sometimes she is just too tired to try breast and honestly at times too tired for a bottle. They told us all along the work it takes for babies to learn to breath and eat... and well, it sure is a lot of work for her.
Over the past week, she has had a gradual progression with bottle feeding. She started with taking part of her bottle feed then managed to get her whole feeding down just this past Wednesday, Jan 29th. Then, she had a day or two that she took all 8 of her feedings and the whole volume of 30 ml. Ella pulled her feeding tube out yesterday so they left it out since she was doing well. But then during the night she was too sleepy to eat. I tried waking her but I witnessed it, she was so tired. Then, when I would manage to wake her a little to feed she would take in a couple milliliters then have a period of apnea. She did it again this morning. So, the nurse put her feeding tube back in. I stayed for another feeding with her and again she was too tired and was having apnea.
Ryan and I spent the night at the hospital, so it was very nice to see her at night, in the middle of the night and in the morning. I had the chance to talk with the nurse a lot about taking Ella home. It helped to talk about her breathing and eating. We never watched how the boys breathed when they took their bottles. Just another thing that gets taken for granted. When I fed Ella, I constantly was feeling her breathing, watching her and timing her breathing pauses. She will outgrow this phase just like all the other phases.
Ella is in a CRIB! She has made it to 4 pounds. I can lift her out of her crib when I get there and do not have to wait for the nurse. It was much easier to give her a bath out of the isolette. She is doing amazing.
It is exciting that we are now talking about going home. I have heard the anticipated week of 36-37 weeks from a doctor and a nurse. But, I have also heard from one of the doctors that most babies in her type of scenario go home at 37-38 weeks but some sooner and some later.
The doctor that was there today said he thinks Ella is amazing. She has from day 1 done better than he ever anticipated, but he always ends it with saying "we were more worried about you than her though at that time".
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