Milk: Does a Body Good

The boys started being fed breastmilk when they were only two days old. They have a feeding tube that goes in their mouths and straight to their stomachs. This tube is always in place and will be until they are old enough to feed from a bottle. Every baby is different, but the doctors said preemies usually suck from a bottle around 34 or 35 weeks gestation. Once this happens, they will be close to going home as well.

Max and Tyler are fed every three hours. They started with 1 cc (1 ml) of milk per feeding and have continued increasing their feedings since then. Today they are both receiving 11 cc's per feeding. This means Bridget spends much of her time pumping milk to take to the hospital. At the recommendation of her doctors, she rented a hospital grade pump to keep up with the boys' needs. By the time they are ready to come home, they will be taking 40-45 cc's of milk per feeding. I usually leave the accounting to Andy, but by my calculations that equals more than 600 cc's/ ml's per day! In all seriousness, I feel like this is one big thing I can do for the boys so I won't complain. Next task: figuring out how to nurse two babies at one time!

The milk goes from a syringe down the orange tube into the boys' bellies. Here is Bridget "feeding" Max.

Andy "feeding" Tyler