Anthony Owen came into this world on January 26, 2002 at 10:08pm. He was 19inches long, weighing 4lbs 14 ozs. Anthony was born 5 1/2 weeks premature, the doctors thought he would have premature lungs but he proved them wrong, never having to be hooked up to oxygen. He was in NICU for 24 hours, when he was then transfered to CCN (Continuous Care Nursery), where he stayed for a few days, trying to fight off jaundice & learn how to nipple, which for premature babies is a very hard thing to do. He was in & out of the bililights for several days his levels going up & down, he had a feeding tube (nonpainful for babies). As you can see from the picture above he was hooked up to several monitors, to watch his heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing. Which all babies have when they are born. Anthony was then transfered to the Barbara Bush Floor in Maine Medical Center, which is the pediatrics floor, where he learned how to eat all on his own. It was difficult for me at first to except that I had to teach him to feed from the bottle then the breast, I decided it would be in his best intrest to just teach him one, and since he took better to the bottle thats what we did. Now mommy gets to pump and feed which isnt much fun, but it is the healthiest choice. He is home now and doing great he came home weighing his birth weight, 5 days after being home he weighed 5lbs. 5ozs. He eats nonstop, late night feedings arent so bad, but he is a growing boy so it's ok...:)
