Hello Baby, you had another great day. You continued to do very well without extra oxygen. You have been sleeping well. Your tasting sessions are going pretty well. About half the time you are awake enough to try, so that’s not bad. As you eat more and become hungrier that will cause you to wake up more near feed times. When we do give you tastes, about half of those times you respond well and give us positive feedback for most of the 1 ml tastes. We give you up to 1 ml per taste, drop by drop, as you suck. We do that until you finish the 1 ml or until you get overwhelmed. We have to be careful not to push and to just let you tell us when you want more. It is important that we do not make you have negative response to anything food related. You have had so many negative senses in your mouth from all your tubes it is critical you enjoy your pacifier and milk.
You gained a whopping 54 g and now weigh in at 3 lbs 12 oz. I am glad to see you have made up a little ground as you had a couple slow days in a row. I got to hold you 3 times yesterday. Since you have gotten so big the nurses have said I can hold during your feed times. They start feeds as the last thing we do at touch times, so now I can be here at a touch time and help the hold for 45 minutes. I like this way better then having to block out a 3 hour session. This new stage is so fun, we really interact with you and have new fun things to do together. We are so excited to have you come home someday. You are so loved and you still have this whole world out side of your hospital to learn about. Keep up the great work and we will soon be exploring this world hand in hand!
Letters to Holland 