Wednesday, May 4, 2016

All These Firsts!! - May 4th, 2016

This morning the nurse asked what my schedule was like for the day. I said that I would probably be going in and out since we live so close. Last time you were at Virtua, I went for your care every 6 hours, so 9 am, 3 pm, and 9 pm. Now you have care every 3 hours, and I didn't really take that into consideration.
I ended up staying all day. Here was what my day was like: pump, care, non-nutritive sucking, hold you. Pump, non-nutritive sucking, hold you. Lunch. Pump, breastfeed (!!), hold. Pump, breastfeed (!!), hold. Its crazy how much our schedule has changed since you were at Virtua last! I could come and go much easier then. Now that we are starting to breastfeed, it is a lot harder for me to leave during the day.
Lets talk about breastfeeding! So, when you were at CHOP, you were having some trouble with bottle feeding. They said that they didn't want us to do any bottle feeding until we started working with speech. Now at Virtua, speech said that we should try breastfeeding since you are giving all of the cues that you want to eat. We tried at 11:30, but you were too sleepy. At 2:30, you were awake and you did SO well! No brady's or desats, and no high respiratory rate. It seemed like you knew when you needed to take a break. The nurse didn't weigh you because she didn't think you would do as well as you did. We had to take a guess as to how much you ate and feed the rest through your tube. At 5:30, we decided to try again. This time, I pumped half of the time on the one side, and then when I was finished, I had to wait for the nurse who didn't come in for another 30 minutes or so. You latched and started coughing. You got too much - which I think is because you didn't latch on right away when I was finished pumping. So we tried one more time and said if you were to cough again, we would stop. You did great for at least another 15-20 minutes. Then you coughed again, so we stopped. This time the nurse weighed you before and after. Instead of giving you 40 ml's, she gave you 32 ml's. She said that we will try breastfeeding for three days, and if you do well, we can then introduce bottle feeds. (Please pray that he does well with breastfeeding, and then bottle feeding!)
The only thing I do not like about your stay at Virtua, is the bed that you sleep in. You had a large crib at CHOP that was so big and nice and comfortable. Now, since you have reflux and they have to tilt you up, you slide all the way to the bottom of your bed. That can't be comfy for you!
Well, another day down. One day closer to coming home. You are doing great. I hope this continues! We love you and we will see you tomorrow. Hope you have a great night!!

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