Tales of a Yummy Mommy: The Little Engine That Could

My little Elyse just keeps on chug, chug, chug along, and is now able to take in half of a feeding, about 25 ml, by breast in a sitting. She is capable of three such oral feeds a day, and today I am adding in a fourth attempt. Elyse is on a three-hour feeding schedule, which means she gets fed either by me, and then topped up with her NG tube (tube through her nose to her stomach), or just NG tube at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12am, 3am.
Clearly, the day time feeding times are the most desirable for me to attend while Elyse is only capable of 3 or 4 breastfeeds a day. I had some decisions to make. It is best for Elyse to have longer breaks to rest in between breastfeeds, so she can regain some strength to "do her job" - as one nurse said - the following breastfeed.
I started off attempting to breastfeed Elyse on a 9am, 3pm, 9pm schedule. Some days Elyse would only be awake enough for one of those times, and only suckle a few minutes. Gradually, and especially over the past few days, she has been actively searching and rooting once her belly is empty at feeding time, and has been feeding really well; and so, it was time to add a fourth attempt, with the trickiness of not scheduling three feeding sessions in a row.
My last feeding time preference is to go into the hospital at 3am - getting up early and going to bed late is already a stretch for me. The logical choice for most people is unfortunately not one that works for me or my family. Normally, in our situation, a mother would breastfeed at 9am, 12pm, 6pm, 9pm, but if I do a 6pm feeding time, I will never see Ariel. SO, today I begin my journey of 5am wake-ups and heading to the hospital before the sun comes up. We are working on building Elyse up to a full-feed (46 ml), 4 times a day (6am, 9am, 3pm, 9pm). To go home, she needs to be breastfeeding 8 times a day.
It is amazing how far she has come, and how much bigger and stronger she is getting, but there is still a ways to go. If you ask me if I think she'll be home before Christmas, that I do not know, but we're working really really hard to get there.