More "baby steps"

Olivia keeps improving day by day. I hardly leave the SCBU for any length of time without finding, on my return, that she's taken another little baby step on the road to coming home.

One small step was the Oro-gastric tube (little tube you can see in the photos that goes into her mouth- it's for feeding) was replaced with naso-gastric tube (you guessed it, the nose), which frees her mouth up for getting a start with breastfeeding. We learned early on how to feed her with the tube- it's pretty easy actually- and we try to do as many of her feedings as possible. Suzanne is expressing milk for her, and after a day or so's perseverence with hand-expressing, and learning what works and what doesn't, she's able to just about keep up with the amounts we feed to Olivia. If we fall short, we can augment with a little formula, but we generally haven't needed that much if at all.

Actually, the increasing volume of her feedings is one of the things that's been very impressive; in several steps whe's up to 22ml of milk every 2 hours. It's actually a pretty large volume to see go into such a little body, but she seems to be making use of it!

Right- on the other end (pun intended) of feedings, we've been learning to change nappies!

Another step came recently in the area of staying warm- she's out of the "hot-cot" and is doing all her heating herself. She's a warm little baby. We frequently to give her "kangaroo care" where we take off her (incredibly tiny!) clothes and snuggle her skin-to-skin with one of us, which is great for both! Studies show that kangaroo-cared babies cry less, have an easier time regulating thier temperatures, breathe better, all kinds of good things. Mom or dad's warmth, closeness, the rise and fall of the chest, sound of the heartbeat, all these things are great for her.