Good progress!

Claire has made beautiful progress overnight and during the day. She was bottled fed over night (with mom's milk that had been pumped) and was allowed to eat all she wanted. When she was fed through the tube, they never did more than 40mL at a time...with the bottle, she did considerably more. In her first bottle feed she did 45 mL and in her second she did 62mL. She came down into the 50s after that, but it gave us confidence that her breastfeeding sessions have been healthy and that her tummy is getting very full (we obviously can't measure what she gets while breastfeeding, so the bottle feeds help give us a clue). Given her success, her feeding tube was removed. And the really exciting news: Claire gained 25 grams since yesterday (which is just shy of 0.9 ounces), so she seems to have turned the corner from losing to gaining. She now weighs in at 5 lbs, 9.8 ounces.

The doctor is still saying that tomorrow will be the big day (assuming no mishaps overnight). So we've been busy getting ready. I went out and bought a co-sleeper/bassinet so we can have her in our room...we thought we would move her crib in, but it is too big to fit through the door and I am way too tired to take it apart and put it back together. And who wants to disassemble a crib when you could hang out with an adorable baby!

Claire continues to breastfeed well, and I was lucky enough to get a little cat nap with her in the recliner after one of her meals. I usually get to burp her after feedings, and Valerie was good enough to give up the recliner for a few hours so dad and Claire could do a little snoozing together. She is allowed some tummy time as long as someone is alert and watching her, so with Valerie's watchful eye, we got in some zzz's.

In preparation for going home, Claire has had a big day. Her hearing was tested and she passed. She got a Hepatitis B vaccine, which she was not happy about, though she didn't fuss for too long. She also passed her car seat test with flying colors (she is required to sit in the car seat for 90 minutes with all of her vitals monitored and no issues, which she did after her 5pm feeding). Valerie and I had to watch a CPR video and a "don't shake the baby" video. While not the most inspiring topics and telling us things we mostly know already, it does help to have a little confidence that we know what to do (and what not to do) and haven't overlooked anything. The nurses have been walking us through some checklists of educational items and making sure we don't have any questions before we go home. Again, we aren't learning knew stuff, but it is nice to know that we have educated ourselves.

Given the busy day, we've been a bit off with the cameras, but here are a few shots of our nap and her car seat test. Hope you enjoy them as much as we are enjoying her.