Olivia's Age

Olivia Update

Olivia is doing really well! We finally have her actual pediatrician looking after her now... she's been out of town over the holidays, so yesterday was the first time she was able to examine Olivia. She said she's actually doing better than expected for her age, which made me feel great! I've been frustrated that things are taking longer than expected... I thought for sure we'd have her home by now! All of her issues have pretty much been resolved... now we are just working on getting her feeding exclusively from a bottle or from me. Our pediatrician says that there is a "Feeding Fairy" that visits the hospital... babies tend to go from being a bit lethargic about feeding to "getting it" and taking everything down practically overnight.
So we feel that the Feeding Fairy has done a fly-by on Olivia because she officially nursed for the first time yesterday! It was amazing!!! I had been trying to breast feed her several times and she would just latch and give maybe a handful of sucks, but that's about all I could get out of her. Then suddenly yesterday I tried again, and she just continued to suck and suck! I was thrilled!!! She nursed for 10 minutes in the afternoon and then 20 minutes that afternoon! Today she nursed again for nearly 20 minutes! I feel like she's finally got this nursing thing figured out. Now we just need to get her to be able to nurse from me and also finish the remaining amount she needs from the bottle. My milk has not fully come in yet, so I'm not able to provide all the milk she needs yet. Now that she's nursing I'm hoping it'll come in soon, although the pediatrician said that it could take until her original due date (February 1st) before she is really nursing full time. So my patience is being tested and we just pray that she won't have to be in the NICU much longer!

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