We are buried in snow here in London!

The girls are doing great! Lucy is now five pounds and continuing to gain. She had not gained much weight in the last month with the stress of her two surgeries and the excess fluid she was retaining going down. Ella has been off of her oxygen for the last two days and seems to be doing fine. It is so nice to see her face without the prongs in her nose. Lucy has a little ways to go yet, but her oxygen needs continue to go down.

Our next big challenge is feeding. In order to be ready to go home, the girls need to be taking all of their feeds orally, either by bottle-feeding or breast-feeding, and still be gaining weight. Until now all of their feeds have been through their NG tubes in their noses. Being fed this way does not require any energy from the girls and often happens when they are sleeping. In order to fed by mouth, they need to be awake and it takes a lot more of their energy. Pre-mature babies often have difficulty feeding because they do not have the same suck-swallow-breathe abilities as full term babies. They also don't have the same suck strength as a full term baby.

Over the last week, the girls have each been working at nursing once a day. They are weighed before and after a feed to see if they have actually transferred any milk. They are starting to get between 10-20mls during a good feed by themselves. There is still a ways to go yet before they get all their nutrition from nursing as Lucy's feeds are at 44ml and Ella's feeds are at 60ml. They are tube-fed the rest of the feed. This week we will start nursing two times a day and then maybe three at the end of the week if they are still gaining weight.

Last night the girls each got a bottle for the first time. During the day we will work on nursing and at night they will work on bottling. If the girls are wide awake the nurses will try to give them a bottle. Lucy worked away at her bottle and finished it all in about ten minutes. She seemed quite pleased with herself! Ella was very enthusiastic but kept forgetting to breathe! She took about 45mL by bottle and was tube fed the rest of the feed.

It will be a real balancing act over the next couple of weeks to keep challenging the girls to take their feeds by mouth and yet preserving enough of their energy to keep them growing. The nurses warn us that this is often a slow process. It is also exciting because this is a big step towards going home!

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