Happy Thanksgiving

Dearest Joshua David~

Happy Thanksgiving sweet little thing! I hate that you're still in the hospital during a holiday, but at least you are healthy and continue to do well. That's all I can ask for, and I'm so thankful for you and your daddy today!

We brought some pies in for the nurses to celebrate Thanksgiving. We took them a pumpkin, a sweet potato, and a pecan pie. I labeled them all from you. They loved them! :-)

You had a slew of visitors today. Your two grandfathers and mimi came to see you at different points. Your gigi is coming tomorrow with me.

Daddy and I came to see you for the 9am and 9pm feedings. When we came in the morning to see you, you had gained 38 grams since your last weigh in. You were 3 lbs 15.2 ozs!

We had a lactation nurse help us gain. You had a better seal this time and it appeared as though you didn't swallow as much air as the last feeding. The nurse didn't aspirate the air out, so we just waited to see how well you would do. Also, we weighed you before and after. You took 16 ml by yourself via mouth! Only 18ml had to be given via nose feeding tube. Good job little man! Oh, and another thing that has changed .... when I'm not there, your feedings through the nose tube are now done over 45 minutes (you were fed for an hour prior).

Later, we came back at 9pm. You still don't have the stamina to attempt two feedings back-to-back. The nurse tonight thought that we might be able to try early next week. At 9pm, we got to see the nurse measure you. You're now 41.5 cm (16.34 in) long and your head is 29.5 cm (11.6 in) in diameter. You're still growing! :-)

We did another feeding. Tonight you took in 12 ml. Which means, you took 28 ml of milk via mouth today. That's almost an entire feeding with only two sessions (full feeding is 34 ml)!

The nurse tonight explained more on why we're pushing you to learn breast feeding prior to bottles. When using bottles, the milk just drips out and you don't have to learn how to suck very well. Also, you can't control the rate of the milk, so you could get overwhelmed with too much in your mouth. Once you get better at breast feeding, we can introduce a bottle to you. The nurse was thinking of having you practice more over the weekend (increase the number of feedings you and I try) and maybe introduce a bottle on monday. I'm going to go to three feedings tomorrow and saturday to help you (probably the 9am, 3pm, and 9pm). They'll be long days, but it'll be worth it to see you improve. At each session, you get a tad stronger so the more we try the better you'll get .... and the faster we can get the feeding tube out of your nose. Plus, we get to see each other more often! I can't wait until we're both not living at the hospital! :-P

And, here's the big news .... you were weighed again tonight .... you're now 4 lbs 1 oz!! You broke the 4 pound barrier! I'm so proud of you! What wonderful news on Thanksgiving Day!

I'm so thankful for the blessing of you in my life!

I love you dearly!

~Mommy