8 days old

Happy birthday, Charlotte and Lilah! You're one week old today!

These posts are starting to sound a bit repetitive, but the girls keep doing well, so I'm glad it's always the same good news. Charlotte will be taken off the bilirubin lights tomorrow and there's a good chance that Lilah will be put on for two days. Charlotte was completely racked out the entire time we were there today, and the nurse said that she had been all day. We wanted her to rest and make the most of the lights so she never has to go on again, so except for my hand on her back and singing softly while I was pumping, we didn't disturb her.

When we came in, nurse Maureen had put a tiny little t-shirt on Lilah, so we pulled out our bag of handmade preemie clothes, courtesy of one of my amazingly crafty colleagues, and played dress-up. Hey, they're practically dolls. At least doll-sized. The staff loved all the outfits and wanted to see them all. They are made of soft, infant-friendly materials and use stitching that wouldn't irritate their skin. They also have velcro openings in the front, on the sides and along the tops of the shoulders to accommodate wires and tubes as needed. Very clever.

Lilah was also ready for skin to skin holding with me and since her respiration was slow and steady, nurse Maureen asked if I wanted to start training my little girl for breastfeeding. Lilah was still fed 9 mL via her feeding tube, but she got to practice latching on and hopefully will start to associate it with a full belly. She was rooting around and suckling, just not very well. She's still pretty small to pull it off, but we're getting closer! Luckily for you, we did not photograph this event.