Orla's progress

Orla is three weeks old today and was 2.95 kilos at her last weigh-in on Monday. It feels as though she is emerging from prematurity into newborn-ness. We no longer have to time her feeds during the day (nor at night, providing that there is no more than 4 hours between feeds – of course Orla has been waking through the night at 3 hours on the dot!). She has grown out of one of her little quintuple zero outfits.

When she is awake, she is very interested in her surroundings. She scans my face, and it seems like she is trying to focus her eyes on mine. She looks around to the top of my head, then out from side to side, sometimes fixing on the contrast between my red cardy and white t-shirt. She makes all those little newborn expressions - the “ooo” with her lips, the grimace (that looks so much like a smile!), the tongue-poke, the raising of the little eyebrows, the little worried look. Her skin is looking a lot more like my babies’ skin usually looks.

She sleeps now with her arms alongside her head, rather than down along her body. She still curls her little fingers around mine. Orla loves her black and white pictures, and will stare and stare at them, as if fixing the images in her memory. And her little face seems to be filling out a little bit.

Next weigh-in is Friday – I’m hopeful we will continue to see progress.