Brothers and babies and breastfeeding

We had a very perky girl today. We didn't get to visit very long, but I did get to hold her and we "practiced" breastfeeding. The medical term is "non nutritive." I pump to empty out and then try to get the baby interested. They (as in the medical powers that be) don't want her eating from me yet because they need to monitor her intake very closely. However, they do want her to start getting used to the idea and the process so that she can start doing it when they give the green light. Ellie actually did very well according to the lactation specialist. Ellie was very alert and kept looking at me and wiggling around. When Chad came in and spoke, she turned toward his voice and wiggled some more. I think she knows who we are :D.

The NICU at Primary's has a neat activity each week called "Sibling Hour" for all the brothers and sisters of the babies staying in the NICU. We took Harrison and Alex down to participate in that today. It was really good for them because they got to have a lot of things explained to them on a level they can understand. The nurse that was teaching them had a binder with 8x10 pictures of the hospital, the NICU, beds the babies sleep in, etc, so the kids could see where their babies were. They also had a bed just like the one Ellie is in right now that had a plastic baby in it and they showed the kids all the neat things the bed does and what the monitors on the babies do. Then they had cloth dolls the kids got to draw faces on with markers and dress in little hospital gowns. The boys also decorated little cardboard boxes with stickers and markers to keep things in like syringes (no needles obviously!), toothbrushes, monitor stickers, and polaroid pics of Ellie that the nurses took. The boys seemed to have fun, although they were still sad they didn't get to see their baby sister. Alex said he liked the "hostibal". They're both troopers and have been very good helpers.