Big Girl Feeding

Each morning when we enter Ella's room we're not sure what the mood of the day will be...sometimes exciting, sometimes disappointing, sometimes worrisome, sometimes relief. We are pleased to report that today was exciting news! Ella has been doing well enough on her low-flow oxygen that the doctors were ready to take her from continuous feed to 2-hour feeds. Essentially, this means we give her enough food for 2-hours and she has 30 minutes to finish it. (Then hopefully she digests it all rather than spitting it up or leaving it sit in her belly.) When the feedings are spaced out, it allows more air to enter her body, which is why it's important to get the oxygen flow correct first.

On top of the move to 2-hour feeds, the nurses are allowing her to bottle feed 1-2 times per day! This is very good news, and a huge step towards her getting to come home. We were unsure how she would react to the bottle since she is only 33 weeks old and typically babies don't express interest until 34-35 weeks. However, our over-achiever took the bottle like a champ and ate about 1/2 of her feeding (the other 1/2 was then given through her feeding tube). With this, comes a few more guidelines - we aren't supposed to move or disturb her within 30 minutes of her eating, and we have to more closely monitor her stats and breathing to make sure she isn't working too hard to tolerate the new feeding schedule and method. Bottle feeding is hard work for her, and I can certainly now understand how hard it is after trying to drink cosmos out of a bottle at my shower last weekend (kudos to my creative gfriends). It's tougher than it looks.! : )