Bottle-feeding

Well, it has been a long time since I have posted and a lot has happened. Savannah is now bottle-feeding twice a day, and dry nursing twice a day. She is positively enormous now, at 6 pounds 15.5 ounces! Her breathing has gotten so good now that she rarely desats. She is still on oxygen, 25-30%, and the doctors think she might be even younger than we thought when she was born. They now think (because of things like the maturation of her eyes, and her lungs, etc.) that she was born a 26 weeker, and we had her due date wrong. So actually she was born 3 and a half months early. The fact that she is still on oxygen is concerning, but the doctors say it isn't anything she won't grow out of. The main problem now is her bottle-feeding. In fact, it is the only thing keeping us at the hospital. If she would start bottle-feeding, we could go home. The only way they were feeding her was by her feeding tube down her throat. (actually they still do, except for twice a day) But now, Savannah has to get used to a whole 'nother mode of eating, and she isn't used to it. In fact, until now, she did not associate her mouth with food. So this is quite a change for her. She no longer desats while feeding (i.e. she no longer quits breathing while feeding) but she does lose interest, and doesn't like to feed from the bottle. She cries, and squirms, and generally pushes the bottle away. But the nurses persist, and she is gradually making progress. But so slowly! We CAN'T WAIT to take her home, but we can't until we have a way to feed her, and she is not liking the bottle. She can't seem to coordinate breathing/sucking/swallowing. She gets food in her mouth and doesn't know what to do with it. This is because technically she is not supposed to be out of the womb yet. She has to learn manually what newborns do instinctually. So, in sum, it is frustrating. She is big enough to take home, but....we...can't! But we will soon. I hope she doesn't have to go home on oxygen, but at this point I would take what I can get.

Tonight we gave her a bath, and my mom sang to her. It was really cute, we got the whole thing on tape. And, of course, I have LOTS of pictures, which I'll have to post. My sister also held her and seemed to really enjoy it.