A day of Miles-tones!

Today was a big day for our little boy. It started with the night shift with his move to an open crib - this is one required step in his journey home. We no longer have to ask the nurses for permission or help in removing him from the isolette. Now, I am free to walk in and pick up him or just give him a kiss. This is wonderful but strange feeling that me, his mother, is suddenly trusted to move him around without the careful eyes of a nurse. Remember he is still very small and to me, very fragile. But I surprise myself and not only take him out but am able to maneuver myself and put him back in and wrap him up, all by myself...it was a Rocky moment. Now, Miles has to prove himself by maintaining his body temperature so he doesn't have to go back to the isolette. It is off to the side of the crib, just in case.

The second big step for Miles was that he finally reached 4 pounds (ok, he is 4 grams short but that is no more than a couple hairs so who's counting!). Can 5 pounds be so far off? I saw Laura's daughter Sophia today who at 4 mos weighs 16 pounds, a giant compared to Miles - but he will get there soon enough.

And if that wasnt enough, today Miles made huge progress in his feeding. Over the past week and a half, we have introduced recreational breast feeding but Miles still gets all of his calories from a tube or "gavage" feeding. In the past couple days, we have started introducing nipple or bottle feeding. When I spoke to Dr. Lewis today, she recommended pushing him more on nipple feeding than the breast. Why? Because that is the road home and the doctor even threw out a "couple weeks" timeframe (more on that later).

Preemies younger than 34 weeks don't have the ability to suck, swallow and breathe all at the same time so even now is a bit early. Even when they do, they get tired very easily and tend to have Brady's from all the work. Plus all that works burns calories which means less weight gain. Net, net, a delicate balance of how far to push a little one. But Miles continues to prove himself a quick learner. Thanks to a wonderful and patient nurse, Liz, I was able to practice nipple feeding him during our morning visit. For the first time, we got it all the way in his teeny, tiny mouth and my boy sucked, swallowed and breathed like a champ. Ok, so he only took 5 mls out of 39 before he tuckered out but progress was made. BUT, the next feed with another angel nurse, Chrissie, our kid took almost the ENTIRE feed with his bottle. Huge progress for a 33 1/2 week old.