We take the little encouraging signs when we can. The other night, Grace was introduced to her future during her regular feeding (through the tube) she made little sucking motions. This is something we are really excited about because it looks…well…normal. Doctors and nurses are happy but they seem to do fewer backflips. They call this “recreational sucking” and it is encouraged but still only the first of several steps toward breastfeeding.
The key to growth and feeding is the one-two punch of sucking and swallowing. This takes coordination and instincts that shouldn’t appear for a few weeks. As it is, a tiny tube still goes to her stomach and milk is dripped in there every two hours. She is currently getting 7 milliliters of milk per feeding and is tolerating that very well. They have been increasing her feeds for a little while. First they tried 1 ml every day, then every shift and now every other feeding (twice a shift). That she is tolerating this is very encouraging, even to those wet blanket doctors! She will max out for awhile at 14 ml and start putting on weight. This also means that she will not need her IV soon, in fact the doctor has an order not to replace the IV if it should fall out.
With those feeds increasing, the race is on for Jenn to stay ahead of her in terms of milk produced to milk consumed. So far Jenn is holding her own with 15-30 milliliters every few hours. Not bad for 31 weeks.
Other encouraging things:
- Grace seems to actually be enjoying the photo therapy spa treatments. It is working and should only be a couple more days of that
- Mommy and Daddy are heading home in a couple hours, after out NICU parents get together at 3:15…I think we will show up early.