The Difference a Week Can Make

Yesterday morning Olive was taken to Radiology to have a contrast test done to see if the repair on her esophagus had any leaks. If it came back negative she would be able to begin receiving her mama's milk orally.

Success!! A couple hours after she returned from her test, she got to have her first bottle! Seeing as it was her 1-week birthday, she got to "have her cake and eat it too" :)

One of our happiest moments so far!

Andrea's best friend, Meredith, flew in from Boston as a surprise just to give a hug and support. Best surprise ever!!

Proud papa holding his baby girl!

We could see the relief for Olive as she began to feed. Afterwards she took a long, happy nap! Originally we thought it would be at least a full week before she would be able to receive any milk, so this has been so exciting for us. It is truly amazing how fast her body is healing and growing stronger. She amazes us every single day with her progress - which took further leaps and strides this morning! Her medical staff came for rounds this morning around 6:00 am to let us know that she was doing really well, and her body was responding great to the food. They would be removing the chest tube today and increasing her feedings!

Around 9:00 am the doctors came and removed her chest tube right in her room. Just 30 minutes later I got to feed her another bottle. Her total milk intake has increased from just 2.5mL tube fed every hour + 5mL bottle fed every 8 hours, to 10mL tube fed + 5 mL bottle fed every 3 hours! These new feedings closely mimic the feedings an infant her age without TEF would have. We can tell with each one she is feeling so much happier! It was really hard for her (and us!) to not be able to feed her when she was telling us so clearly that that is what she needed and wanted. So this has been a huge milestone for us!!

Full tummy's make for first smiles!