Guess who's eating?

Ruby got her first bottle today. 

I expected this to be a painful and slow experience. I thought Ruby would take a few milliliters then we'd eventually have to stop because she would fall asleep etc. Nope - she sucked the entire bottle down in 15 minutes with one break to burp. There are some tricks to feeding preemies. We fed her in a side lying position, and we would let her take a few swallows then angle the bottle so milk was not coming out and she could take a break to breathe. The hardest part for preemies is coordinating the "suck, swallow, breather" so we can help them do it in the beginning as they are learning. She will continue to get 1 bottle/day and the feeding therapist said she will probably quickly advance to 1 bottle/shift, since she did so well today. Millie would have gotten her first bottle today, but she ended up needing a blood transfusion. She has been teetering on the low threshold of where they usually transfuse for a week or so and her hematocrit dropped a little more today. The down side is that she had to get an IV and she can't eat for 24 hours. Hopefully this will make her a hungry girl for when she takes her first bottle tomorrow.

I forgot to get Millie's weight today, but two nights ago she was 3 lbs 12 oz! Ruby was 1500 grams last night (about 3 lbs 4 oz). If she weighs 1500 grams or more again tonight then she can start wearing clothes tomorrow.