Spa Day on the Lily Pad

Today has been an incredibly busy day on the lily pad! Because of Zane's recent accomplishments with the bottle his doctor wrote orders for the speech therapist to come in and work with him. Orders are required before 34 weeks, gestational age. Michelle the speech therapist came at noon and immediately started him on a special bottle designed for preemie babies that will be breast fed. It is called the "Haberman". This bottle is unique because it requires the baby to suck harder and pull the milk down from the bottle into a chamber before the milk comes into the nipple. (It is made by the same company that makes the breast pumps.) There are guides on the chamber that let you know the flow. You can change the flow by simply turning the bottle in the baby's mouth and not breaking their "latch". It was more work for Zane for sure. However, he did complete the 42 ml's in the required 30 minutes. Michelle was impressed with his ability!

After lunch it was "spa time"! Zane got to get his first tub bath. It is actually called a swaddling bath. The babies are wrapped in a blanket and put into the warm water under a heat lamp. I think he enjoyed it. When it was over Kelly wrapped him in a towel and held him under the heat lamp while I changed his bedding. We put him back in his "camper", dressed him and took some photos of him with "moo moo". Baby Zane is 3 weeks old now and weighed 5 pounds last night. That seemed big until they brought in a term baby that weighed 9 pounds and 1 ounce. He was just stopping by our pod on his way to rooming in. He looked like a toddler!! I swear he could look over the side of the bassinet.

We had just finished our photo shoot when Ned got here. We were surprised that he made it by that early. While they are bonding with their little bundle of joy I'm in the family waiting room writing and updating my blog. I'll be going back home to Alabama tomorrow morning to work at the ole Shamrock. Will be back in Nashville Sunday. And now for your photo fix. Enjoy!

When you "live" in a little camper sometimes you just have to hold your nose!

Michelle, speech therapist, working with Zane on his suck, swallow and breathe techniques.

Spa time.....

Kelly getting instructions from Nurse Debra....

I'm ready for my nap, are y'all done yet?

Easy with the srubby dub dub.....

aaahhhhhh....

hey, this heat lamp is "cool"....

oh brother....

My best side?


Zane and Moo Moo. Zane's getting bigger!