Big Bruisers

We hit a major milestone yesterday! Leo finally reached the 3 pound mark (he weighed 3 lb exactly). Congratulations, little dude! Your mom and dad are very proud of you.

Leo is starting to catch up to his brother developmentally too... today, he sucked down two bottles! It was amazing. Yesterday, he liked having the nipple in his mouth but didn't know what to do with it, and today he just went to town. He was very tired towards the end of the second bottle, so he will be getting the rest of today's feedings by gavage. This is a gigantic step forward for the little guy.

Drake also had a great day. I fed him 2 bottles, and Matt fed him a bottle for the first time. He is really getting good at coordinating the breathing, sucking and swallowing required for drinking down a bottle. But he still needs a lot of practice, because he swallows far too much air with every bottle, and it is hard to get him to burp. It takes about 30 minutes to feed him a bottle, where he sucks for a total of about 5 minutes and the rest of the time is spent trying to get him to burp up all the air he swallowed. Drake weighed 4 lb 4 oz at last night's weigh-in. He is really starting to put on the chub - he has round little cheeks and dimples on his hands.

After Matt finished feeding Drake, he held both boys simultaneously, for the first time ever. It was absolutely wonderful. The three of them had a nice, sleepy time together.


After leaving the NICU, Matt and I interviewed another pediatrician. He's a perfect fit for our family. The pediatrician knows all of the NICU doctors, has tons of experience treating ex-preemies, and he will help us tackle any preemie-related problems the boys may have early on. Unfortunately, his office is pretty groty, but his practice is moving into a brand new office towards the end of January. We drove by the new office, and it is very nice! There will be no carpet to harbor germs or gross kid spills, there are separate entrances for well and sick children, and it will be easy to get in and out of the office with our giant double stroller. One more item checked off the endless to-do list. What a relief!