Note: Jacob Raymond Walker was born 12 weeks prematurely at Duke University Hospital the morning of Monday, May 19 2008. The following are updates, notes, & observations on his growth & development.
Always remember rule #1--"Never trust a preemie." I'm now comfortably lounging right next to Jake back here in the transitional care nursery. You've read that right--little Jake's now back in the big leagues.
Yesterday, Jake kept improving and it turned out that he just had a bad reaction to his milk fortifier which we sort of suspected. His white blood count never rose, he has a history of sensitivity to the milk fortifiers, & his belly distension coincided with the increase in the fortifier amount (I've been at the hospital less than 2 months & I think I'm Dr. Ross).
He's now back on feeds though they started back at square one & are slowly increasing the dosage. He was up to 180ml & yesterday we started off at 40ml. He's handling the food just fine & this morning the doctors doubled him up to 80ml. We're just excited he's back on the food as he was visibly cranky yesterday and it was pretty clear from his constant sucking on his pacifier that he was hungry.
The whole feeding routine is quite interesting. Since he's too small & his mouth is too weak to actually feed on the breast, we (that's Kristin) pump his milk and they give it to him via a small feeding tube (through his mouth or nose[!]) that empties into his belly. The milk is put in a large syringe & a mechanized pump slowly pushes it into his stomach.
Since he doesn't know how the milk gets there & he has the natural urge to suckle, he often gets a pacifier when he's getting fed. That way he associates sucking with a full belly. This of course made it extra sad yesterday when he was sucking like crazy on the pacifier but not getting any milk. I suppose its a different version of nipple confusion....
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