Après Moo, photo by Harold Davis.

When we visited Katie Rose in the NICU today she was about to be fed using the gavage tube directly to her stomach. Phyllis held Katie to her breast and let her suckle as the tube-and-pump did their thing.

This was Katie’s first time at the breast, and she did it like a champ. (My alternate title for this story was “First Nibble.”)

But nibbling at her mom’s nipple took a great deal of energy, and après moo Katie Rose fell asleep.

Katie weighes 2,085 grams, or about 4 1/2 pounds. She’s doing great, or as one of the nurses said today, the “perfect preemie.” Her head compares in size in the photo above with her mom’s hands, which may not seem that big compared to a full-term newborn babe’s head, but is big indeed compared to her 840 gram start.

Go, Katie Rose, grow! There’s plenty more nibbling to come.

Briefly noted: Once again I found myself doing a digital manicure on Phyllis’s hands. I’m now begging her to get a real world (as opposed to virtual) manicure. This proves the point that there are many things photographers can do in Photoshop or in real life, the question is which is the most expedient. If Phyllis’s cuticles didn’t need retouching, then I wouldn’t have to do it over, and over, again.