Mazie's eating out of a bottle now. She's still got her central line available for feeding if need be, but she was drinking 3 ml yesterday, and is up to 9 ml today... pretty good for someone who's stomach is supposed to be the size of a thimble.

She's figuring out the 'suck swallow' thing. She's got it down, but sometimes when she gets the bottle into her mouth she just kinda gums it a little.

I got to hold her, and feed her today. Michelle did late last night.

Feeding a newborn is a hell of a weird experience. It's only then you start to realize how helpless this little pink package is, and how much they're going to depend on you. Gotta hold the head right, gotta hold the bottle right, gotta keep the covers on, gotta make sure the spit rag is nearby, gotta remember not to squeeze her too tight, gotta read her face, and realize when she wants the thing to go away so she can digest a little. It's an incredibly complex set of variables to juggle.

Good thing I play lots of video games, eh? WHO SAYS THEY'RE NOT GOOD FOR ANYTHING!! Juggling complex variables in a video game I think can be a great thing for learning how to cope with real life situations where you must juggle like that. Granted... the consequences for failure aren't nearly as bad, but I think everyone gets what I'm saying... or maybe I'm just making up dumb excuses for being a geeky 32 year old who still plays video games.

Changing her for the first time was a strange experience as well. She's so small, and you're almost afraid that you're going to break her. You start to wonder how the nurses manage to hold her without hurting her the way they do. It looks rather rough at times, but you realize that their touch is very tender... they've just been doing this for so long, and seen so many babies... that they're really good at juggling those complex variables, that already elude me a bit.