Belle Update: July 25

She wore socks for the first time today 😃

Let's keep those tiny feet warm! Our room can get slightly cool from time to time, and Bella doesn't always enjoy being bundled. Especially in the middle of the night. She'll protest while she's asleep, and then proceed to kick the blanket off. Daddy covers her legs, and she pushes it right back. And around and around we go. 

She's just a peach 💜

Belle's been an absolute darling the last few days. She has slept better during the night, and has been awake for decent portions of the day. She's back on schedule.

She has very quick naps during the day, just like her mom and dad. All three of us are now professional power nappers.

Belle's biggest problem lately is her tummy. She's bothered a lot by her feeds. It's always sort of been an issue, but now it's coming to the forefront. 

She hasn't been pooping very much either, and the staff believe it's likely the main reason why she hasn't been taking her bottle. She's backed up, and doesn't feel that hunger and drive for food. 

An occupational therapist gave us some more pointers today, and Belle took nearly half of the bottle from her. We certainly can't complain about that! She took 20mL from Kiera later in the evening as well. 

We know Arabella has the right skills, but her stomach just needs to catch up.

She simply needs more time. It's a lot of volume to take in. Her stomach runs out of space towards the end of the feed. She'll reflux, and sometimes spit-up. The extra milk fortifiers make her uncomfortable, too. 

All of these things seem to play a major role in the bottle feeding dilemma. 

The staff decided to give her some laxatives over the last few days, but we haven't noticed a huge change yet. 

We have really nothing major to complain about, though. Arabella's a pint sized powerhouse, and she continues to make great strides forward. 

If she needs more time, so be it. We're in no rush. Belle controls the tempo of the game.

Skin to skin with mommy (9 days old)

Look what time has done for her so far. We can certainly live with time. Time is our friend, after all.