12ccs of food (and trying to be a big boy!)

WARNING: This post talks about breast feeding. If you aren't comfortable reading/knowing these details, skip this post!

Our little guy is trying to grow up so fast! First, we were so excited when we came in today. Our favorite daytime nurse - Kathy - was on. She is the most amazing nurse - we're always so excited when she is on Owen's service.

Once we arrived, she informed us that Owen's feeding was increased to 12ccs per feeding - a 3cc increase from yesterday! He's still passing them very consistently.

When we had Kangaroo care time today he actually started to try eating on his own! He had the first part of the process down, he just can't coordinate suck, swallow, AND breathe at the same time. Kathy was amazed though - she said it's unheard of that he's even accomplishing what he did today. Usually it's a few more weeks of maturing before they're able to figure out as much as he has. Being able to eat exclusively via a nipple (and not feeding tube) is the one milestone we were the most concerned about. The doctors told us that babies don't develop the ability to do this until week 33 to 35, so the fact that he's already testing out his abilities is awesome. We're going to keep practicing every day until he can actually start taking some of his feedings this way.

Kathy also said that it's very mature how he comforts himself - he holds his little hands together up next to his face when he sleeps. She says the ability to find his other hand and then hold them next to his face is a big step. This is how he comforts himself every day - it's so sweet to watch.

So funny story of the day - Rory and I are both very sleep deprived. I have to wake up every 3-4 hours to have a date with the 'baby food machine' so my sleep quality is crappy, and poor Rory gets woken up every time I have to get up too. So we're both suffering. But this has led to some very vivid dreams for both of us. Last night, I was having a dream that a woman was coming after our family. She took a swing to punch at me, and I reached back into my kickboxing arsenal of tools and gave her a big kick in the stomach. Well, turns out I actually DID kick and punted poor Joelle (the kitty) right through the covers!!!!!! Funny thing is, Rory was having a very similar dream that people were attacking our house and he was shooting at them through the bedroom windows...so waking up to me kicking with every ounce of my strength wasn't exactly settling!!!!

On an insurance note, we were ecstatic to find out our insurance would pay (100%) for a top of the line breast pump. We finished up all of the paperwork today and the company delivered it to Owen's room. Nice!

Owen is 10 days old today!