Sugar and Spice

My sister from Oregon is here, and brought bows and flowers and outfits to dress up our little girl:

There's no denying she's cute.

She was also present to see Tootsie top the scales at 5lbs. 1oz. last night!

My sister has experienced a range of medical issues and challenges with her three sons, including a NICU stay with her eldest, and motility issues with both her first and second sons (which I've written about here).  Right now there's a kinship between our cousin on a feeding tube and our own baby with her NG tube, too.  We've bonded as I listen to my sister recall her own NICU saga and provide updates on the status of my nephews' health.  My sisters--one a nurse, the other with so much experience in the hospital--have been ideal companions through this journey.  

We're trying to figure out how much breastmilk Tootsie is getting during a feeding, so at some point during the day we weigh her before and after a feed.  It's an inexact measurement because she has lines dangling, but last night it looked like she took 26 milliliters.  The nurse subtracted that much milk (the most we've ever measured) from her fortified tube feed.  Well, about an hour later, she started squawking.  She was still hungry.  She is interacting more and more with regard to her feeding, which is a great sign.  We'll expect her to be more in charge of when she feeds when she goes home.  The current plan, to help support her growth and weight gain, is for us to feed her by (supplemented) bottle of breastmilk most times, and feed by breast alone three times a day or so.  As she shows continual weight gain, we'll add more breastfeeding.  

My sister and I wandered to Boston's North End for dinner last night, the Italian section of town.  It was hopping on a Saturday night, with a feast celebration running down several blocks and lines for every restaurant.  We were fortunate to secure a table quickly in a great trattoria and had a lovely dinner. We returned to find our night nurse is a North End resident.  

My sister leaves today, and my Cambridge sister returns tomorrow.  I'm hoping my next family visitor is my mother, who will come help us transition out of the NICU, onto an airplane, and home to our family.  Wednesday is Day 21 of the antibiotics regimen, so we're hopeful we will know more then...