And let the feeding games begin! This week has been great for the babies and their parents, and then...also stressful. Maggie has taken to bottle feeding like a champ. She is fantastic at pacing herself, and has learned to suck, swallow and breath just like she needs to. Jack is a bit further behind. He definitely has the desire, in fact his sucking is much stronger than Maggie's, but he isn't quite grasping the breathing part. I'm able to help him pace and he does OK. The worst part is that he is having these breathing episodes where his 02 level really drops and he loses his color and goes blue! The first time scared us quite a bit, and now we are always watching for it. I can almost hear when he is going to have the trouble, which is good for when he is feeding. He is also having some reflux and air valve type of problem, where he simply just can't breath. In time he should grow out of this.
Both babies are now off their caffeine and continue to gain weight. Maggie is 4lbs 2oz and Jack is 5lbs 2oz. It still amazes me how much of a difference that 1lb makes. When we hold one and then the other, we can really "feel" the difference. They already look so different to me!
For now we are just continuing to work with them on their feedings and hopefully they will gradually get stronger and begin to start taking oral feeds all of the time. Right now neither is able to finish a bottle and the rest ends up down their nasal tube, but they are still only 33 weeks in gestational age, so they are ahead of the curve in preemie terms. Our kids are so smart! :)
And finally, some pictures.
Feeding time
And 4 weeks ago:
Maggie
Jack
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