Nippling Day

Today was a much better day than yesterday. I got to hold Poppy three times! Each time, we tried to breastfeed. I had the help of two different lactation consultants for two out of the three feedings, and the consultants were impressed with Poppy's latch each time, though the little lady quickly passed out before any breastfeeding was done. She isn't used to being held, and took a little bit too much comfort in it. :-)

Thankfully, the nurse today was extremely patient with us. Oh, how well a day goes depends heavily on the nurse! The nurse explained that Poppy is still getting a lot of nutrition from the TPN (electrolytes: baby Gatorade) and lipids going into her IV, and that will prevent her from being and acting hungry. So now we get to play the slowly-cut-back-IV-fluids-and-monitor-growth game, hoping that she learns to eat well enough to replace the IV fluids. I just hope we can find the point where she is sufficiently hungry enough. I foresee challenges in this arena...