Screamy McScreamerson

Lily has taken to screaming as loud as she possibly can if she goes more than one second past the time she thinks she should be fed. She screams and screams until she can't catch her breath. I have no warning either so I can be prepared. Sometimes she wants to eat after 2 hours and sometimes she will go 3. She really has no hunger cues either except the blood curdling scream. The bottle warmer takes waaaay too long. Someone needs to invent an instant bottle warmer. I would pay good money for that!

No one ever said how hard breast feeding is

especially breast feeding a preemie. I have been pumping since she was born and I have about 1500 ozs in the freezer. Since she got so used to bottles in the hospital I have had problems getting her to latch on and eat an entire feeding at the breast. She has a great latch but shes lazy and gives up before she eats enough. So we try at least once a day on the breast and when she cries an hour later I give her breast milk in a bottle. She is getting better and going longer before she screams for her bottle so I guess we are making progress. Once she can go 2 hours before her bottle I will add in another feeding at the breast since she usually only goes 2 hours between bottles anyway. With her still being so small I have to make sure she is getting enough to eat so I have to continue with bottles instead of forcing her on the breast, but I am hopeful she will get it as she gets bigger and gains more stamina. I am sick of pumping every 3 hours!

Introduction

This is the story of our lives with our little Lily Grace. She was born at 32 weeks 1 day on March 15, 2010 at 11:28 am weighing 4 lbs 6 ozs. Lily was twin A. Her little brother Logan is now an angel in heaven watching over her. He developed Necrotizing Entercolitis (NEC) at 7 days old and passed away. He will always be part of our lives and we will love him forever.

Lily spent 37 days in the NICU. We had a pretty eventful stay. She began life with RDS and was on CPAP for 4 days then stepped down to the nasal cannula for a week. Lily also had a PDA which was successfully closed with 2 rounds of ibuprofen. 2 days before her release we had a NEC scare and were rushed across the street to the children's hospital where the pediatric surgeons were. Luckily it turned out not to be NEC, but a UTI which was treated with antibiotics and 10 days later we were finally home.