More big news for Zoe-  every day has been so exciting lately.  Last night around 11:00 Zoe and I had our first attempt at breast feeding.  It was amazing that she instinctively knew what to do.  I wouldn't say it was successful in terms of her getting any amount of milk, but she knew she was supposed to nuzzle and open up.  She tried at sucking and swallowing but it will be one of those things we will have to work on with her.  Becasue she has had tubes in her throat for so long, her tongue naturally wants to curve backward not around, but she does stick her tongue out and lick.  The nurse and lactation specialists are thrilled that Zoe is doing this at all. Apparently alot of babies with CDH's have complete oral aversion and want nothing to do with feeding.  Zoe will haveb to work at it, but for right now she likes nothing better than snuggling in and falling asleep at my breast.  In fact that is what we did all day today.  She would try feeding for a while and then fall asleep for a while and then wake up and try again.  Right now, evryone just wants her to find it an enjoyable process which she seems to.  In the mean time she is getting 15 ml of breast milk via a nasal feeding tube every 3 hours.  She also gets a bag of nutrients constantly streamed into her PICC line, this is what she has been being sustained on so far.  As she gets more milk, her IV fluids will be decreased.  She will be given an additonal 5 ml of breastmilk every 3 feedings (12 hours) as long as all goes well and stays down.   How long we have left to go is anyone's guess.  It's really all up to Zoe at this point in time, the sooner she learns how to eat and can breathe comfortably on her own, the sooner we will be back home.  She probably has about another week or so to go on the high-flow nasal canula and then would most likely be onto a regular nasal canula if she needs it.  Learning how to feed will proably take several weeks, but who knows.  I'm figuring we have at least another month to go, but no one can put any date on it.  My mom (Nana) is coming to Portland tomorrow for a few days, she hasn't seen Zoe since surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago-  she's very excited because now she will be able to hold Zoe (grandchild #8)