Saturday 20 November can go down as another good day for little Jessica, with three bits of good news coming through.
First, she is now up to 1.5 ml of Chantelle’s milk per hour, with a decrease in the amount of artificial nourishment that she was being fed via the IV drip. Her stomach also appears to at last being clearing up, though for now she is still being fed the milk via the tube leading straight to her duodenum. Second, she has picked up a further 60 grams according to the records and finally, she’s being weaned off the CPAP oxygen assist, meaning that for the first time we got to see her without that great big pipe taped to her nose! :)
Sister Jenny holding up little Jessica, sans those great big CPAP pipes across her face for the very first time!
By all accounts, our daughter is doing well, and of course this does Daisy the world of good to hear. And speaking of Daisy, Steri and Stumpie are still doing a sterling job of producing milk, seemingly going for broke at the moment, attempting to fill each and every plastic little bottle we can throw at them! The loan of Andri’s electronic pump is proving to be an absolute boon, and Daisy has been religiously sticking to her rigid schedule of prompting Steri and Stumpie into action every few hours! (Though I think she might kill me if she knew I was typing this and posting it to the web!)
Chantelle and myself at Dean's 30th Birthday Brunch at Groenland
As for our visit with her on the day, it was first preceded by Dean’s Big 30th Birthday Bash Brunch, held at the delightful little Groenland Winery off Bottelary Road, where we joined all the friends, the Stapelberg Clan (boy is my little Godchild big already – almost a year old now!) and the rest of Dean’s family to enjoy some catching up, celebrating the big 30 and take in a rather interestingly different and enjoyable breakfast together!
Of course, this great big get together was only the prelude to the day, because from there it was straight to the hospital, where Chantelle got ready to kangaroo with Jessica while I buggered off to do our neglected grocery shopping at Zevenwacht Mall. It was a pretty awesome experience for Chantelle to hold little Jessica without the CPAP pipes attached, because for the first time little Jessica’s face was completely open, eyes taking in everything around her, ears listening to all the sounds and the cutest little button nose enjoying the smell of Mommy’s skin.
Of course, this closeness to little one also excited Steri and Stumpie, meaning that Chantelle was forced to cut short the kangaroo session lest she flood the whole NICU in milk! ;)
Chantelle in the middle of her kangaroo session with the little open-faced Jessica Dribble Monster
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is my beautiful, long-legged swimsuit model-wannabe is doing just fine, making for one very happy Mommy and Daddy team!
(Oh, and Chantelle is doing just fine in case you were wondering :P)