More Milk

Natalie started on my milk at 2:00 on Friday.  The good news is she’s not had any stomach issues with it so looks like the repair is healing!  Because her stomach has tolerated the milk, they have decided to start increasing her amount 3 ccs every 12 hours until she gets to 55 cc.  As they increase the milk, they are decreasing her IV nutrition, TPN.  At that rate, she will be off the TPN feeding in her foot in 7 days.  The doctor said it’s possible she could go faster or slower but that was an average.  Once she is no longer taking anything through her IV, she can move to the Newborn Progressive Care Nursery (NPCN) to continue to learn how to eat.

When we got to the NICU today, she had the feeding tube in.  Though it was a little disappointing, the nurse explained that they will continue to feed her by bottle until she’s working too hard and feed her the rest by the tube.  The tube is attached to a syringe that hangs upside down on the slats of her crib.  The milk drips down into her stomach by gravity.  We got there too late for her 2:00 feeding and had to leave before the 5:00 but I should be able to feed her at least once a day while I’m there in the mornings.  If eating ever ‘clicks’ and she takes her full feeding for 3 times in a row, they will take out the tube.  We’ve had some doctors say it’s a preemie issue and some doctors say it’s a Down’s issue.  It is possible for Down’s babies to eat from bottles and even from Mommy, though, so we covet your prayers that Natalie would be able to learn how to eat.

David was rocking Natalie today when she started to cry.  He was letting her cry for a little bit just because she rarely does.  I got up to check if there was a cause and smelt it right away.  We got to change our first poopy diaper and our baby even told us about it too!

Yesterday, I brought in a bow just to see and, yes, she did have enough hair to hold one in!  I started talking to her about how pretty she looked and she smiled.  She is having gas now and I know they say that babies smile this early because of gas but she also was smiling at us when she was not able to do that.  Her nurses all seem to love her and we’ve had a couple say they are taking her home with them.  Today when I got there, one of her nurses was just about to pick Natalie up because she’d been fussing.  The nurse was so disappointed when she saw me coming in!

My sister, Jill, just called after visiting Natalie this evening.  She said Natalie weighed 6 lbs 10 oz!  She has passed her birth weight of 6 lbs 6 oz.  Jill also said Natalie took the whole 13 ccs from her in less than 20 minutes.  They’ve told us longer than 30 minutes is burning too many calories.  So, sounds like she might be picking up how to eat slowly.

Prayer Requests:

• That Natalie would learn how to eat and continue tolerating my milk
• Strength for me (Amy).  I’m getting pretty tired with the middle of the night pumping.  I did get to go to church today but the ‘excessive sleepiness’ that I was taking medicine for before we knew of Natalie really hit me hard.  I know it’s very important for Natalie to drink my milk so I need to be able to continue to stay off the medicine that helps me stay awake for as long as I can.
• For the recovery of my mom from shingles.  She’s having a lot of pain from the shingles and is really struggling with not being able to be here.
• Praise- Thank you so much for all your prayers, food, rides to the hospital.  We have felt so cared for and loved by each of you.  We pray that God blesses each of you for the part you have had in the arrival of our Natalie Grace.