Saturday December 24, 2011 - 22 days old

A Week of Ups and Downs 

The good stuff:  Alex continues to progress developmentally just as he should.  We worked on nursing and early this week he got the mechanics of it down.  He and I both seem to know better what to do.  That was encouraging.  He is also gaining weight steadily.  On Wednesday night he was up to 5 lbs 8 oz.  As of last night he was 5 lbs 12.1 oz!  This picture was taken today.



Alex 12-24-2011  22 days old

On Wednesday in rounds his care team said its time to introduce bottle feeding.  Alex is ready to really tackle oral feedings and my supply is just not keeping up.  So we will give him as much breast milk as I have and supplement the rest with formula.  After all of the unexpected events - early delivery, cesarean, and leaving our baby here in the hospital for 3 weeks - nursing was the thing I was hanging on to, hoping to be able to do as planned.  Wednesday and Thursday were a couple of really tough days for me. 

When its time to eat or when he shows signs of being hungry and he is awake, we first offer the option to eat orally - either nursing or by bottle.  If he's too tired or just plain sleeping he is fed through his feeding tube.  The goal is that each day he will progress to fewer and fewer tube feedings.  When he is eating 100% by mouth and gaining weight, he can go home.

The first day he had 16% oral feedings.
The second day he was up to 35%. 
We are now working on the 3rd day (24 hrs) and he seems to be taking off. 

We are likely just a few days from going home!!!