Finally held her

When we arrived Sunday the medical staff had removed all of the lines going into her bellybutton. (they had tapped into one artery and one vein) They asked us if we wanted to hold Ruby and we jumped at the chance. We finally were able to hold her after 6 long days. Whitney was beyond excited to hold our little girl for the first time and was very emotional. She was able to hold her for an hour and a half. She said it was amazing. Later that day we came back to the hospital. I held her for a few minutes and she passed right out. I was able to try offering her a bottle of breast milk but she was not interested. The nurses were pretty sure her throat might still be irritated from the tubes. We would try again the next day.

Today an OT specialist helped us with feeding and she seemed a little better. They plan on helping us out throughout the week and they think that she should be feeding normally in the next couple of days. We also did some skin to skin therapy to get Ruby familiar with mommy. This has really been the first setback. We have to remind ourselves how far she has come in just one week. Whitney just really enjoyed being able to hold her again for 2 WHOLE HOURS! It is hard seeing her and not being able to take her home but we are so grateful for how she is doing. We hope to have her with us soon.