First breast feeding attempts! (Post from yesterday)

Today is a big day, Ivanna tried milk straight from my breast!!! She is 34 weeks and 2 days today.

NICU term for this is called "lick and sniff", this is the first step in breastfeeding. Preemies usually don't start taking full feeds from the breast until they are close to being full-term since breastfeeding (sucks-swallow-breath reflex) takes a lot of energy from a small baby. Starting 34 weeks they start developing this reflex and they slowly feed more and more from the breast. Whatever they don't take from the breast gets supplemented through the G-tube (same as they where getting milk from g-tube from birth) and eventually bottle can also be introduced.

Ivanna did amazing! She latched on right away and totally went for licking and sniffing and then fell asleep after having a few drops of milk. It was a success! Our primary nurse said that she has never seen a small baby allowed to start this at 34, usually doctors allow it around 36-37 weeks when the baby is very small. But Ivanna is so advanced and so they told me I can start!

As for me, it was the most incredible feeling ever... I can't even describe it, and I totally cried a bit because I was so happy  seeing her latch on.. Now she looks just like a normal newborn, just tiny in size. And she acts just like a new born and I can handle her just like you would handle a full-term baby. No more pressure from the oxygen and other inconveniences... She rest of our NICU journey will be about feeding and growing, all the other milestones are pretty much done. The amount of oxygen she gets from low-flow is close to nothing so she will be off of it any day as doctors say.

She had her immunizations on Tuesday, the one that all two months babies get. After the immunizations she spiked a small fever and started to spell so she had to go back in high flow for 48 hours and that's normal with immunizations.

And on Thursday she had a second eye exam. Second eye exam showed that she has Stage 2 Zone 2 ROP but this not an ROP that needs treatment. It might still resolve on its own or she could need medication for it in the future. But it means that her eye exam will happen once a week at this point instead of once every two weeks.