12-Hour Request

Wendy called me at 11 today after doing rounds on the girls.  She was very pleased with the girls' numbers from yesterday and thought we should maybe try a 12-hour request.  A 12-hour request is when the babies get fed from me or a bottle for a 12 hour period.  They have a certain amount of milk they have to eat each time to pass.  The babies decide when they want it but the nurse won't let them go longer than 4 hours in between.  She was more impressed with Addi and thought for sure she was ready for the 12-hour request but was willing to put Jordyn on it too.  I told her I liked the idea of keeping the girls on the same course if we could so we decided that we would try it out because we had nothing to lose.

I went down at 1:30 for the first one and Gena fed Jordyn a bottle while I tried to nurse Addi.  She fought me a lot and then would finally latch on, only to fall asleep right after.  Eventually after a half hour of that I just gave up and fed her a bottle.  She drank the whole thing in like 7 minutes.  Jordyn did great with Gena and ate the whole thing.

I went again at 4:30, 7:30, and 10:30 to help feed the girls.  I didn't have very high of hopes for this first 12-hour request because Wendy had told me that most babies fail the first one and have to repeat it a few times.  But, of course, the girls did awesome and drank the full amount all 4 times!  We passed!  After the 10:30 feeding tonight they will give the girls a 12 hour rest with only gavage feedings (through their tube) and then we will start up a 24-hour request tomorrow.  After all this time, there is finally an end in sight!!

 Nick and Mom came in tonight with me and he fed Addi a bottle while I gave Jordyn hers.