Fun Day! The Occupational Therapist came to see us!

Today has been a pretty fun day. We're in good spirits because Ellie is eating MORE! Wahoo! We've tried now for a full 24 hours to only fortify the breastmilk to 22 calories and then also serve a couple feedings of straight breastmilk (which is 20 calorie) and we've noticed she is more hungry! YAY! So she's been averaging 50-60 mLs per feeding. We're feeding her every two hours during the day and every three at night. So yes, the trend is continuing! AND...her pooping is becoming more frequent! It's more than just once a week now! Yippee! Now, we'll just have to see if this experiment still allows her to have enough calories to gain weight. We'll find out for sure on Monday at Dr.Duff's. Oh, and her eye did clear up with the drops we already had for the tear duct. Nursing hasn't gone very well again - she arch backs and even just starts getting fussy even when I begin putting her at the breast. I'm finding out that it's really hard to balance all my life roles right now and just am not sure how much longer I'm going to try the breastfeeding. I haven't given up completely, and am still pumping, but well...I dunno. We'll see. See those wide eyes in that picture? Yes, our little girl is awake more! Today she has just been a good baby, content and just looking around. Fun fun. Ben is back in full health and Mom sure appreciated seeing daddy and Ellie when she got home from her practicum (I've been trying to make up as many hours as possible lately...still have quite a few more to go but have until next semester starts to finish them). Today we had our first consultation with Jeanette with the Infant and Toddler Program. She is part of a team made up of an occupational therapist (what she is), speech therapist, early education specialist, physical therapist. So she'll be coming to visit us every other week to help educate us on Ellie's development. We have a task list for this week, so it will be fun to pay closer attention to the developmental cues Ellie's showing. She was wide awake while Jeanette was here. She was following a toy with her eyes - which made us so proud as we've been talking to her close this whole time, but just didn't notice how well her eyes could follow an object! She also moved around quite a bit - wiggled both of her arms, legs, so that was good too. We're obviously not expecting her to do a lot since she's adjusted age 3 weeks! We are also going to try mirroring faces - sticking out our tongue, see if she'll do it. She was also impressed with how she just sat there staring around and listening to us talk - Jeanette said maybe she'll be social like her mama! :) We also got a couple books to reference for premature babies and then one for infant eating and swallowing. Most of this visit was an information gathering session. We're looking forward to Jeanette's next visit to see what Ellie can do then - it's January 13.