Chloe will just not pass that tiny bit of contrast that's left in her rectum. Fortunately, it's a small enough amount that they decided to go ahead and do her upper GI contrast tomorrow. They'll put some barium in her belly and watch it travel through her intestines to make sure there are no strictures or narrowing of her intestines. I can't even say how anxious we are for Chloe to begin eating. It was extremely important to her doctor two weeks ago that we get her eating and we still haven't managed to get to that point. Her liver and bones are suffering from the IV nutrition she's been receiving. We've been praying day and night that they can get her eating and the days just continue passing without reaching that point. Praying so hard that the test goes well tomorrow and that subsequent feedings are processed by her tiny and underutilized digestive system! In the meantime, I read something about hind milk that I'm going to start working on. Apparently, the milk toward the end of a "pumping session" is higher in calories than the milk pumped at the beginning. Who knew? Anyway, I talked to the lactation consultant at the hospital and she said I could try to switch bottles toward the end of pumping to collect the hind milk separately. They'll give this milk to Chloe since it's higher in calories so maybe it will help her grow more quickly. Any little bit helps, right?
On a respiration note: Chloe's doing really well with her respirator and steroid weanings. So well, in fact, that they decided to try and take her off of it today and let her breathe on her own. I was on the way home from the grocery store when the nurse told me and I almost started crying. I was excited, nervous, anxious, hopeful, scared... Well, they took her off and extabated her (took the tube out of her throat) but she only lasted about 30 minutes. Poor little thing just couldn't handle all the work required to breathe on her own. They tried, anyway. It's definitely encouraging, though, that they thought she was doing well enough to try. As soon as she's strong enough I'm sure they'll try again. And once she gets some of this hind milk in her she'll be much much stronger.
Thank you God for our precious little blessing. She is amazing!
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Way to go on the hind milk! We did that for a long time with Darbi and it helps a ton! See if they will do a creamatocrit on your hind milk. (not sure I spelled that right.) It checks to see how much fat you have in your hind milk. So if cow's milk comes in 1% or 2%.. my hind milk measured in at 17%! It's good stuff for those tiny babies!
ReplyDeleteShe is amazing! Crew had to try a few times to get off the vent too. In fact, one time he was off the vent for 12 hours and I was sure he was home free. After 12 hours, he started getting weak and circling the drain, so they reintubated him. I was sad :( The next week he came off and flew flew flew!! I agree with Audrey ont he creamatocrit. Breast milk usually is 21 kcals, and they try to beef it up with formula to make it higher calorie (22 or 24 or even 26) and some babies have a hard time processing that (Crew just stooled it out and ended up LOSING weight.) But if yours is already naturally 22 or more (I have heard as high as 30+ I think???) what is the point of beefing it up with formula JUST for the calories if she has trouble digesting? Just something to file away for a future battle.... In our case it was better to keep him OFF the formula until he was stronger. Better to grow "too slowly" than not at ALL, I say!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you found out about the hind milk! I am so happy that she is getting so strong!!! :)
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