So, we are still playing catch up here. We began this blog almost 2 weeks into Mikaila's life. She has been steadily improving with her feeds. Just a few minutes ago, they increased her intake to 12 mls every three hours. If all goes well, and we expect that it will, they will increase her to 13 mls (full feeds) at 2am tomorrow morning.
Kangaroo Care
One of the more difficult notions to come to terms with was that when we were to leave the hospital, we would not be taking Mikaila with us. However, we spend time with her every day at the hospital and have been able to establish an amazing bond. The bond between mother and daughter has grown daily through their kangaroo care sessions. Kangaroo care, where a baby is taken out of her incubator and placed inside the shirt of mom, is a relatively recent but very exciting development in the care of premature babies. Maximum skin-to-skin contact is key with Kangaroo Care. Studies have shown that both babies and their mothers benefit from these sessions. Mikaila really loves to cuddle with her mommy. Her heart rate settles down and she actually is warmer when they put her back in the heated incubator than when they took her out. Kim makes a habit of "kangarooing" Mikaila from 60-90 minutes every day.
Pacifier
Although we have been told by doctors and nurses that babies don't tend to develop a sucking reflex until 32-33 weeks, Mikaila has a keen sucking instinct. Once in a while, you can actually see her mimicking nursing. The nurses gave her a mini-pacifier (although it is huge for her) and she really goes to town on it. See picture above.
As mentioned, tomorrow, Mikaila should be at full feeds. We will do a post tomorrow on her progress related to her feeds and her growth.
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