Yesterday you decided to bring a little action to our day. Everything has been going so smoothly lately, everyday during rounds your doctors and nurses have told us that its good to have boring reports in the NICU. You've been gaining weight and your lungs are improving, we have felt just a little bit of relief. However, yesterday, right before your 11:30 am feeding, Nurse Lori was checking your residual from your earlier feeding, and you had a lot more than usual. She pulled back on your feeding tube to see how much milk is still left in your belly in order to measure how well you are digesting your milk. Normally, you only have 2-4 CC's max in your belly, yesterday it was 10+ and your little belly measured at 26 cm, very distended for you. The doctors took an x-ray and noticed that your intestines looked bigger than it should.They take bowel issues very seriously in the NICU, there are some pretty scary things that can happen, so scary, I won't even mention them here. Your feedings were up to 30 CC's (1 oz) with a human milk fortifier (HMF) that adds an extra 24 calories to Momma's milk, every three hours. That's a lot of food for a little guy like you, even if you are a Crews boy! So they decided to let your bowels rest for 24 hours. That meant no milk (poor kid), an IV back in your little arm :( and a tube down your throat to suction out any extra gas or residual in your stomach. You were rightfully not very happy about any of this and it was hard to watch you take a brief step back. Doctors were hoping it was just a bad reaction to the higher volume of milk plus the HMF, and that a big poop would solve the problem. I never thought I would be so excited to see a poop filled diaper (or two). After your poop your belly automatically went down 2 cm! If you want details, you can view the text conversation I had with your daddy right after. Momma was disturbed, your daddy was proud!
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| Yes, your daddy is listed as "My Hubba-Hubba Hubby" in my phone, don't judge. |
This morning your x-ray looked better, your belly was down to 22 cm, and you had pooped two more times, thanks for the scare kiddo! So that yucky tube got to come out of your tummy and you can start eating again! The doctors backed down on the volume and the HMF to just to be on the safe side.
What was even more exciting is that they wanted to see how you would do with a bottle since your feeding tube was already out and because we had been working on sucking on your paci the last few days. Babies in utero start to suckle between 32-34 weeks, and the sooner we get you to take the bottle I can try to breastfeed some too. We knew that you were still learning, so we weren't expecting you to eat that much. Well, Jackson Crews, you drank all 20 CC's! You also took all of your milk out of the bottle at the 2:30 feeding too! Check out the video below, you were so cute!
We love you sweet boy!
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| Hungry boy! |
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| Milk coma |
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| Happy boy! |
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