growing baby

Earlier this week, Mateo decided to stop liking the SNS. This coincided with us introducing a bottle to make the feeding faster — we realized that I was spending 8 hours a day with my finger in Mateo’s mouth, the finger was getting swollen and we weren’t getting any sleep. Overall, the SNS method took well over an hour and a half, which meant that soon after we were finished feeding him it was time to start the next feeding cycle.

The bottle certainly helps make this all a bit faster: Mateo can gulp down a bottle in about 15-20 minutes. He’s also getting better at eating at the breast (albeit with a nipple shield). However, ever since he’s realized that the bottle gets him milk faster he completely abandoned the SNS, crying incessantly as soon as my finger went in.

Linda’s doing well — we’ve been going on walks every few days and while last week we started at half a mile and built up to almost a mile, today’s walk was a mile and a half. Most of the walks tend to also include the purchase of a pie from a local place. Of course overall she’s very tired, and sore from having to feed and pump so often. We have rented a rather nice breastpump from the hospital), so the pumping is at least going well: there’s definitely enough milk to feed not just Mateo but also a small contingent of other infants. We’re starting to freeze some of the milk now so that we have enough supply for the future.

Mateo, meanwhile, is growing. On Monday (when he was 10 days old) he regained his birth weight (actually he went even above it, clocking in at 6 lb 11.5 oz, or 3048 grams). And today his umbilical cord has finally fallen off. So, I think we’re progressing as we should.