Lots of cuddles with Arabella today.
Kiera and I took turns holding her in the afternoon and evening. We tallied a total of 5 hours throughout the course of the day. We all love our cuddles. It's so much easier to handle her now that she's on the mask. You just have to be mindful of her tubes and wires.
We try to keep Tinkerbell tightly bundled up, but of course she insists on having those hands up.
Always with her hands up.
Her tummy is full of air so it looks enormous compared to the rest of her body. They call this 'CPAP belly syndrome' and it happens to a lot of preemies on the mask. I hear that it can affect the face as well, so that would explain why we've seen her puff up so much around her eyes, cheeks and chin.
Belle's still on high air pressure, and some of it goes down into her stomach. It makes her uncomfortable. They're also fortifying her feeds. Mix all of that with her breast milk and it's a recipe for one irritable baby. Making bowel movements is especially hard work. I won't go into any more details - you guys get the idea!
She's being fed more and more as the weeks go on. Currently Belle is getting 24ml of breast milk every 2 hours (through her feeding tube). It's run at a very slow pace so that her stomach can handle it. Once she's finished, the tube is then purposely left open (or 'vented') so that extra air can freely come out if it needs to. The air simply needs an escape route, either from one end or...you know 😆
Everyday we learn more and more by talking to the nurses and doing our own research. Knowing is half the battle!
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