Breaking the 8 lb barrier

 

   We have been creeping up on this number for a month! Every morning I weigh M on the hospital provided scale. It is part of a home monitoring program @ CHOP for interstage babies. We send his oxygen saturations,  his pulse, his daily intake, and the dreaded weight. I tie so many emotions up in his weight - mostly fear that despite my best efforts - pumping around the clock and only giving him the calorie and fat rich hind milk almost every hour- he will lose weight and we'll have to supplement his milk with formula or feed him continuously via a tube down his throat or in his stomach. I also feel frustration, and a deep sadness that this innocuous number - this thing that happened in my girls at an easy and embarrassingly high rate (they were technically obese Michelin like babies - is such an important thing for Macsen and reveals how well he's doing - or not doing with his unique heart.  

But today I felt JOY!!! And happiness and ecstatic-ness and such relief - he's 8 lbs!!!! It's taken us a month to gain the weight he gained before surgery and lost in the days following and now we have exceeded it! I've never been so ready for one of my babies to outgrow their clothes - so ready to get rid of all the newborn clothes.