Little Elise

Well, life with Mollie is so easy. I know I must sound crazy, but taking care of one baby is a breeze. She's definitely predictable. She's already sleeping 4 to 5 hours between feedings. I'm sure this will change as she gets older. But for now, I'm really enjoying it.

It looks like Preston will be coming home on Sunday (if not earlier)! I'm really excited about this; however, I know what's coming. Having two babies at home and one in the NICU will be another challenge. But I'm up for it. We will still spend our days at the NICU with Elise. I can't believe how much Preston has grown! He's huge!! He's already 5 pounds, 2 oz. Pretty soon he will be 2 pounds over his birth weight. I'm so proud of him.

Now for Elise. My heart is breaking for her. She's still on the feeding tube. She gets fed 2 out of 8 feedings with the tube (in a 24 hour period). She tires so easily with the bottle. But when I nurse her, she's fine. I was a little upset yesterday when I arrived at the NICU. The plan was for me to nurse her at 8 am and 11 am, but the nurse suggested to bottle feed her both feedings. It did not go too well. She's supposed to finish her bottle in a 30 minute period and preferably in the first 15 to 20 minutes without stopping. Well, she has to be coaxed into finishing. You have to continuously work her to finish. This is not a good thing. I try to tell everyone to wake her up 20 minutes ahead of time to eat so she can be wide awake, but not everyone listens. On top of that, there's been a lot of nurses assigned to her in the last week that have never taken care of her before. So, I have to always tell them how she is. Please pray that she begins to have hunger pains at every feeding and she takes the bottle with some aggression.