Friday, December 7, 2012

A Successful Latch!

Today I was able to spend a lot of time in the NICU with Elliot. I was trying to make his morning feeding, but I hit a lot of traffic going into town. He took all 35 ml from the nurse by mouth for that feeding. At his 11:00 feeding, they let me nurse him. And he successfully latched on and took milk! He nursed for a combined total of about 15 minutes and after each breast he burped. Just like yesterday, they checked his belly and drew up at least 10 ml from his stomach (that's the size syringe she used-so may have been more). It's great to know that he's interested in nursing and that he's getting milk :). However, they still gave him his full feediing into his feeding tube. That's fine with me-will just help him to gain weight.

Today I was able to touch base with Dr. Barkmeyer (the NICU attending on service). He said that Elliot didn't do as well as they expected with his feeding yesterday (he wouldn't take his feeds at night). So they're going up to 38 ml every 3 hours to help with weight gain, and will monitor how he does the rest of the day. He said that if he does poorly, then they're going down on the attempts per day (right now it's 4). He said that sometimes when we push them too hard, it backfires. So please say a prayer that he takes the remainder of his attempts today. I completely understand what he's saying, but it's discouraging to hear that we may have to go backwards.

On another note, I got pooped on as I was changing his diaper...then as I was trying to clean it, I got peed on. I forgot how these little boys are! No matter how little! :)






Overall, today was a happier day for me. I think it's the first time that I didn't leave the hospital crying. Nor did I cry myself the entire way across the bridge.  As hard as this is being away from him, Andrew and I are so incredibly grateful for how well he's doing. We are so thankful that my doctor was proactive and I believe ultimately made the right call. 

We've been getting ready for him to come home. We've got the crib put together now and lots of clothes, blankets, etc washed. We've also been spending a lot of time getting the house ready for Christmas. This is my favorite time of year and I just hope that soon we'll have yet another reason to love it!!


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