Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Day 58

She did it. Aerin nursed successfully and got an entire nutritional feeding. Thank goodness for lactation consultants - Beth helped so much. We tried using a breast shield and that was all it took. She can latch onto the nipple without the shield, but her mouth is so small that it's very hard work for her to elongate the nipple. As Beth put it, there's no such thing as a preemie-sized breast. The breast shield fixes that problem and she ate like a champ for the entire 30 minutes. She seems to like it better than the bottle, although she slept during most of it. Nursing is so much better than pumping - there's really no comparison. She and I are perfectly at peace during and after nursing.

Aerin has entered a phase where she won't go to sleep unless someone is holding her. I think it's adorable and am always happy to oblige her. She's a big girl now - 3 pounds, 14.66 ounces.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

Wow, that breast shield is a great idea. If I had only known... When my son was in NICU, the nurse took a bottle nipple and put it right over mine and that seemed to help, but it was difficult to use. It seems your way to be much easier to use. G*d Bless.
~jen~

Anonymous said...

Wow! This makes me very, very happy. :)

Anonymous said...

30 full minutes! You two go, go, go! Great job, Aerin! I'm just thrilled! And I know Mama is, too. :D

-Anne/kq

Anonymous said...

Kira,
We really enjoy eacj comment you include with the daily pictures of Aerin Amelia. Fun to read.
Sophia