Day 23: 4 Hour Feedings, Cousin Matt & Dad

The only crummy thing about having Tucker stay with me is having to walk him when it's pouring down rain....that was my morning! Thankfully Ben had left his camo rain coat because I didn't have an umbrella with me, so we were able to wander around for 5 or 10 minutes while Tucker did all his tricks without me getting soaking wet. He required a good toweling off, but no big deal.

When I arrived at the hospital this morning around 11 am, the speech therapist was back to feed Mallory again. They like to check in on them and their progress. I mentioned wanting to move to every 4 hour feedings to see how that would go, so the Nurse Practitioner came over and said it would be fine and we would feed her 55 cc every feeding at 4 hours. So she sucked down here feeding for 11:30 am and then off to sleep and we would see what 4 hours would bring us!

She was wiggling around a little before 3:30, so I was happy to see that because normally she's sound asleep. I fed her a bottle of breast milk this time so we could see how much she would take. She did really good until right at the end and she got a little choked and was then done with the bottle, so she took everything but about 15 cc, so we just went on and put that down her feeding tube. So now, on to wait until the 7:30 pm feeding.

Since Ben was going to be coming by the hospital later after his meeting, I headed back to the camper to let Tucker out and grab some dinner. I got back in time to meet up with Matt who came over to see Mallory!

I thought it was cute, he will probably hate me for telling, but he was like I thought I hated all kids until I saw her! She's so cute, you just can't resist! So Matt got a good visit with her before her 7:30 pm feeding. Here's a picture of Mallory holding Matt's finger : )



Also, congratulations to Matt, he's about to wrap up his Thesis and will soon have his Masters Degree from UK in Architecture...which will be very handy when we go to build a house!

The 7:30 pm feeding came and she was awake again! So we breast fed and then I gave her about 15 cc more in a bottle and she took all of that too....so we will see tomorrow how the night feedings went, but so far it's looking like the 4 hour feedings may be what she needs!

She just keeps gaining weight like a little champ! She gained 30 grams yesterday so she's up to 4 lb 12.5 oz today! 5 pounds here we come!

Ben had a good meeting with the Agco salesman and had dinner and then back to the hospital around 9:30pm. I was still holding bean when he arrived, so she had another nice visit with her daddy! We put her in her little bed, it's always so hard for us to leave her at night! So it was a long day, but well worth it!

Here's another picture from today....can't wait for that feeding tube to be gone!