February 2, 2010 --- Happy One Month Birthday, Lily!!!

7:30am

Tracy and I made it a point to arrive at 7:30am today. It's a big day! Lily gets to feed from a bottle! Lauren, Lily's night nurse last night rearranged Lily's feed schedule a little bit to make sure we were able to give her the first feed of the morning. We thought it was possible that Lily's replogle could be out by the time we got in, but no such luck.

But that's ok! The surgeons came in at about 9:00am and said that it was OK to start bottle feeding, but "let's keep the replogle in just in case she doesn't do so well with the bottle." They wanted to start out at 2 ounces (60 cc's) every three hours.

So we agreed to give mommy the first try at feeding the Lil' Monster. What an exciting moment!

The reaction she gave with her first swallow was priceless! She was like, "Why is there something coming out!??" As expected, she was a little pokey. She would slurp once and stop. Slurp again. Some would dribble out the side of her mouth. Then she'd slurp twice and swallow and breathe. It was a very good sign!! Mommy and I were so proud to watch her feed from the bottle for the first time!
We kept encouraging her and she would look around as if to say, "I got this!" She started to do a bit better. Three slurps, swallow. We stopped to burp her after the first 10 cc's. There wasn't much of a burp, but the nurse said we can try to feed her some more. Lily wasn't having it though. She slowed down a lot and got very tired (silly parents decided to give her a bath JUST before the feed which probably pooped the poor girl out!).

Lily finished at 13 cc's, just over half an ounce. All in all, it was very encouraging for a first feed. The nurses and the doctors were pleased. The rest of the bottle was Bolus fed to her through her replogle (I guess the surgeons knew what they were talking about.)

12:30pm -- 2nd Bottle

Since Tracy got the first bottle, I got to feed Lily the second time. I was so excited. Lily had been up for about an hour, looking around before she started to get fussy. She's hungry. Another good sign.

Lily took the bottle right away when I offered it to her. She was so methodical, too. 2 slurps, breathe. 2 slurps, breathe. 2 slurps, breathe. She barely stopped at all. Before we knew it, 20 cc's were gone. It seemed so fast this time, I almost forgot to stop to burp her. It's tough to burp her with all the tubes attached. It's very restrictive, and moving her around could dislodge something. It's really the only time I get nervous when holding her. Luckily, I was able to get her to give a little burp.

I continued feeding her. She kept eating the same way. 2 slurps, breathe. It was so nice. By the time she was done, the whole bottle was almost empty! She drank 50 cc's which is just under the two ounces the doctors wanted her to eat! When she was finished, I held her against my chest and hugged her tight. Pretty soon, we'll be able to do this any time we want, without restrictions!

3:00pm

Mom and Dad have to eat sometime!!! Sorry Lily!

Tracy and I went down for lunch and when we came back, Lynn was holding her. "She finished her whole bottle," she said. It was bittersweet. We were so thrilled that Lily finished the whole bottle, but of course, we would have liked to feed her! Her success by far outweighs our disappointment and guilt in not being there. We will miss dinner if we have to so we can feed her the next time she's hungry!

5:30pm

Lily ate her whole bottle again! However, she doesn't seem to be much of a burper . . . luckily, she didn't spit up at all, so maybe even though we don't hear a burp, she may be letting little puffs of air out. Not to mention that once she gets all her tubes out, it may be easier to position her in different ways to try to get her to burp.

Lily's night nurse Andrea came in at around 7pm. She was so thrilled that Lily was eating. That makes us happy! Andrea has been Lily's nurse from the start, so we are always comfortable leaving earlier so we can get some rest. However, it was cool sticking around for a little bit tonight and chatting with her (even it was mostly about Vera Bradley purses!!)