Bottles 8 times a Day

Natalie has had quite a weekend.  She’s increased from being fed by bottle 4 times a day to now 8 times a day.  They have also increased her amount of milk to 60 ccs.  She’s been loosing a little weight so they are trying to increase her calories.  It’s hard to believe that just a week ago she could barely get 10 ccs down in a half and hour with a ‘weak suck.’  The nurse today kept telling me Natalie has such a strong suck and that she’s doing very well- sometimes taking her bottle in 15 minutes.  I keep trying to nurse her but only once a day.  They told me today that once we are home that might get better but right now, getting her to eat and gain weight is the goal.

We watched two discharge videos today- Safe sleep and the Purple Crying Video.  Both gave scary statistics about problems with babies.  After the videos, we got trained in infant CPR.  All of that was a little much in one day.  We’ve been told that Natalie’s head strength is low.  David was holding her today and her heart rate dropped and alarms started going off.  Turns out that if we hold her where her chin touches her chest, her airway gets constricted.  The nurse said it would get better as her head strength increased but it made us very nervous.  Natalie had a ‘car seat test’ this morning and apparently did great.  They put the baby in the car seat and monitor her oxygen levels to see if lack of head and neck strength restricts breathing.  The nurse practitioner told me today if Natalie keeps tolerating her feedings so well, she might come home as soon as a few more days.  They are going to monitor her oxygen levels tonight to make sure she’s still getting enough air and that todays alarms were just from position.

Prayer Requests:

• that Natalie would continue to learn to eat
• that Natalie would gain weight
• that Natalie would learn to nurse
• that my dad would recover from falling off a later and hurting his shoulder.
• that Zach and Julia would love their baby sister