2 months, 37 weeks adjusted

2 months old, "full term" and making huge jumps this week. I finally got to breast feed!

Marco officially started oral feeding on Monday. He is only doing a little bit of bottle a day (roughly 5-10 mls) to get used to it and to gain strength, but it is super exciting to see this progress. On Wednesday I received the amazing gift of being able to attempt breast feeding. They call it non-nutritive, meaning they don't expect Marco to be nourished by me (still has a nasal tube) but rather just practice his sucking skills. In fact, they prefer if I pump right before we try so that Marco can focus on sucking and not swallowing - two distinct skills that he needs to work on.

I was actually very nervous to put him to me, as I've never had luck with this in the past. (TMI warning) My nipples are generally flat, which means the boys had a hard time latching. We struggled with my first, fighting every feeding session, forcing the latch, until about 4 months when the doctor told us to supplement. My second I got mastitis the first week so milk never established and I gave up. With Marco, pumping exclusively has allowed my milk to establish well AND, it seems, it has properly prepped my nipples to assist in an easy latch!

He latched like a pro, sucked for a good 5 minutes, and seemed to be happy with the process! I'm sure he got some milk because I heard him swallow, and the nurse seemed very impressed. So advanced, my boy.

I tried again today, but he was too sleepy to latch on - oh well - baby steps.

Aside from feeding, no real changes. Breathing steady at level 2 air support, no infections, eye scans went well.

We have about 3 weeks left to his due date, and I'm a bit nervous that he's not going to be ready. He still needs to wean off of air support and eat all his meals through the bottle without trouble. I feel like we are a far ways off from that... but hopefully I'm wrong.

Stay tuned for more next week!