Dottie's feeding and growth

We visited Dottie today and she has continued to make small progress. She has continued to get her mother's milk and the nurses said she she's digesting part of it. Right now Dottie is being fed 1mL (less than 1/4 tsp) of milk every 3 hours. On Monday the nurses plan to increase her food intake to 2mL. Every 2 days after that, they plan to increase her intake by an additional 1mL, so that after 20 days she'll be consuming 10mL (2 tsp) every 3 hours. Of course if Dottie starts having problems digesting then they'll change the plan.

Dottie has also shown growth the past 2 days. Apparently it's typical for preemies to lose weight for the first few days after they are born, because they are in a much dryer environment outside the womb so they start to lose moisture. The doctors increased the humidity in her incubator so that she won't lose as much weight by evaporation. We spoke with a doctor today who showed us that she's grown 2oz in the past two days to just barely get back up above her birth weight (1lb 3oz). Doctors hope that Dottie will be averaging 1oz of growth per day from this point forward.

We received this gift from a dear friend tonight. It really touched our hearts and reassured us that God is the one who will make Dottie grow. Ounce by ounce, God will make it happen:

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