Our little one came Friday, in a hurry and in fetal distress. BM had an emergency c/s because baby's heartrate was 195 and flat. Sarah was born with respiratory distress and was taken to the NICU and placed on CPAP. My original plans were to take baby to the nursery after birth and go skin to skin and nurse her right away (all with the cooperation of my great co-workers, since I work in Labor and Delivery). Well, that all went by the wayside. She was on CPAP for 12 hours and then oxygen for 12 hours. Finally she got to eat her first breastmilk from a bottle at 24 hours old. DH got to feed her, he was so excited and she gobbled it up. Then through the night she got to eat 15cc every 4 hours from a bottle. The neonatologist was understanding that I wanted to breastfeed but he wanted to make sure she could tolerate the suck-swallow-breath thing. Finally at 9am yesterday morning I got to nurse her. I was worried since she had a pacifier from the beginning, but I know that with getting poked, IV's, a CPAP up your nose, etc, she needed to at least have some comfort so I didn't mind. But then with the bottles I was worried, although on Kellymom.com, I researched what would be the best bottle and NICU let us bring in our own.
She loved nursing. She has been nursing a little over 24 hours now and can latch right on and sucks and has great swallowing. She also then sleeps for FOUR!!! hours inbetween!!!! yay!!! She nurses about 45 minutes at a time although the last 15 of it is mostly comfort. She really likes being next to mommy's bare skin. I can't wait until she gets to come home. For now she is still in NICU. We might get to take her home today but if not, definately tomorrow. I am so excited to have a new daughter and even more excited that she is fed at MOM's!
