BABIES PICS

for his past couple of feedings, eric had started to increasingly behave in a way that i interpreted to mean that he was getting tired of having a bottle - closing his mouth, pursing his lips, blocking the bottle with his toungue etc. usually when this happens, the nurses are quick to "gavage" him ( feed him via a tube ), with the explanation that it's best to get his feeding done quick so he has enough time to digest his food.

tonight, when i was feeding him and he hadn't taken a sip in ten minutes, i started to signal to his nurse that maybe it was time gavage him.

i noticed that nurse marlene had been watching me closely while i was feeding; she walked over and gingerly picked up eric but to my surprise, instead of putting in a tube, she started to whisper to him that she had a lot of faith that he knew exactly what he needed to do to eat. and much to my suprise, in about five seconds, eric was guzzling away.

nurse marlene is the archetypal nurse caregiver. if you close your eyes and imagine the most grandmotherly of grandmotherly nurses and you'll likely being envisioning nurse marlene. her white, couffed hair, bifocals and ageing hands betray the fact that she's been nursing for quite some time and all that experience translates into the thousand little things that she's doing which result in an easy bottlefeeding.

she very sensitively explained to me all the things i was doing wrong. most obviously, she sits him up, while tilting his head back. i often lay him along my forearm, while holding his head with my hand, which tends to tilt his head foreward making it more difficult for the milk to go down.

she also showed me a great technique for getting the bottle nipple past his tongue. he likes to put his tongue on the roof of his mouth and pretend that he's sucking, but in reality he's just playing with the bottle. nurse marlene showed me how put the bottle in his mouth so that the nipple touches the inside of his cheek and then she swoops it past his tongue.

as if that weren't enough, i'm also being far too timid about putting the nipple all the way in his mouth. apparently, my fears of gagging him are vastly overblown.

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Aren't these two baby birds just the most adorable things you've ever seen in your life? My dad heard them yesterday and I took a ton of pictures then, but this morning I heard the momma and got my camera just in time for their feeding.

I spent all morning planning my Ohio trip. My dad and I are going to 3 or 4 swim schools down there and hopefully meeting with the coaches.

There is absolutely no food in this house currently. In about a half hour I'm leaving for lifeguarding and hopefully when I get home from swimming (and before I go to job #2) there will be something to eat.