At the beginning of our Cook
Children’s stay, doctors told us that for the parents of heart babies, feeding can be the most
frustrating part of the NICU experience.
It was hard to believe them then, but I think Mitch and I might believe
them now! While it might not be the most
stressful part, it certainly can try your patience.
Yesterday was Evin’s last dose of methadone. Even though it was a tiny amount, it still kept her sleepy most of the day. She ended up sleeping hard during some of her feeding times, which meant she was fed through the feeding tube in her nose. Other times she would nurse for just 5-10 minutes and then be too tired to continue, so they would give her the rest through the tube. Last night she ended up losing a tiny bit more weight.
Today, she was completely off methadone and we hope we do not see any withdrawal symptoms in the next few days like we saw last time. I feel fairly confident that most of the spitting up she was doing a few days ago was due to the withdrawals. Her spitting up has improved significantly.
I am very happy with the
decisions that were made regarding Evin’s feeding today. I explained to the doctor that she will nurse
for just a few minutes, get tired, be given the rest through the tube and then
wake up hungry again in an hour. She had
been going through the feeding process every 3 hours starting at 8am. I asked the doctor if we could feed her on
demand rather than on a 3 hour schedule.
She agreed that we could try this and even suggested that we just
pretend like we are at home and that Evin doesn’t even have the feeding
tube. Based off of her cues, I will either
nurse or we will give her a bottle of breast milk with a tiny bit of formula
mixed in. The formula gives extra
calories to help her gain weight. We
started this method this afternoon.
She was weighed this evening
and was the same that she was last night.
We were excited that she didn’t lose any weight! We are praying that after a day of eating on
demand that she will have gained something.
She will be weighed again tomorrow night.
Kori
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| Sleeping sweetly. |
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| Evin's temperature has been a little lower so we are keeping her warm with some of her cute hats! |
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| Happy with a full belly. |
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| Melt my heart! |
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