Waiting, waiting, waiting

Here are some pics from this morning. One where she is mad for some reason and another exactly 30 seconds later!

Yesterday Nora took the day off as far as feeding goes. She was pretty much sleepy all day. The nurses and doctors say that this is normal for her age. It is frustrating because I know that all she needs to do is eat to go home, but must be patient with her. The nurses here say that we should expect to see progress by 38 weeks, which is about a week and a half from now. I have read experiences of other parents of preemies on the internet and many of them say that it just "turns on" at some point and after that the baby eats. Sometimes this happens as late as 42 weeks. If she hasn't mastered it by 38 weeks, the doctor says we can see about sending her home with her feeding tube - I hope she just gets it figured out by then.

Right now Nora is given 5 bottles per day of 50 ml each. She needs to down 75% of this herself - then they will move her to 6/7 bottles, then 8 bottles. The remaining feedings are either breastfeeding through her tube. Once she eats 75% of the 8 bottles, then she moves to "ad lib" schedule and must eat her entire ration (about 400 ml - depending on how big she is then) in a 24 hours period on her own. Then she can go home.

I do not understand why they don't count the breastfeedings the same as the bottles, but they don't and it doesn't seem that I am going to get them to change the rules. I have heard that they say it takes more effort since a certain amount of the feeding from the bottle will just drip in her mouth. It seems to me like she is less fatigued though, and the amounts she is getting is about the same as the bottle. Anyway, this is the system and we will work her through it so we can get home, then we can worry about mastering breastfeeding. It is not going to happen here anyway because I am not here 24 hours a day.