Milestones.

Milestones for the Day:

a) Now on 3 hourly feeds of 42ml. People have asked why she needs to be 3 hourly when some full term newborns will only feed 2 hourly. The answer is that it is not necessarily paramount but makes things easier for Deb, because she is expressing 3 hourly, it helps to prepare her for a good pattern of feeding for when she moves on to the breast and helps to prepare her stomach for receiving slightly larger volumes of fluid.

b) Up to 1850g as of Friday, this is a good weight gain and right on target.

c) Managed to get around 10ml of milk by herself direct from the breast. This is more than can be expected of her at this stage. Usually premmies suck and swallow reflex is not developed enough to effectively get any milk direct from the breast until they are the equivalent of 34 to 36 weeks gestation. Sophie is 33+4 days today, incidentally the same gestational age that Sarah was when she was born. Another point made (by my avid readers) is that she has demonstrated visibly in some of the videos her ability to suck, true she can suck and suck well but it is the coordination between sucking swallowing and breathing simultaneously that she can't quite get right yet. We are assured that this will come, and by the look of things sooner rather than later.

Getting dressed in one of the outfits Aunty Rachel sent over.

It is starting to get a little tiresome now, Deb and Sophie living at the Hospital while I live at home without them, not exactly what we had in mind for our first few weeks after Sophie was born. I think the car knows it's own way to the hospital and back, it has made the trip so many times, the odometer has clocked up 150km since this started, and counting. It is an inconvenience, and a big one at that but nothing more and every time I have to say goodbye to my girls I tell myself 'it's not forever', it is the only way i can cope with it.

I wonder if the Romans imagined that 2000 years later we would be using their road distance markers as a metaphor for reaching important life stages? I think not.