NICU day 94

Well, we’re doing another trial off the feeding tube. We aren’t quite at 80 percent due to the nurse gavaging him twice overnight (though if you ask me, sometimes I think they just gavage him when he could possibly wake up and eat), but he’s had several full feeds in the last couple days and when he pulled his feeding tube out again today the doctor suggested we just not put it back and see what happens again. This time around, the doctor suggested that we just do one or two breastfeeding sessions per day and make sure he is really awake, and bottle feed the rest. She thinks the one or two breastfeeds per day will give him the practice he needs so he doesn’t lose the skill, while allowing him to conserve some of his energy since he doesn’t have to work as hard for a bottle. We can work on gradually increasing the number of nursing sessions per day at home, but as long as we can maintain volume, the doctor said she sees no reason we need to stay here any longer. The next 48 hours will be very telling; we’ll either go home or go back on the feeding tube.

I spent most of the day at the hospital today, and went home late afternoon, and then D and I went out to dinner and a movie (T is with grandparents for the night). Then I came back to the hospital for the night. When I got here, E was wide awake and happy and the nurse reported he had taken two full bottles while I was gone. He then nursed and got about half of his feed volume from me, which is better than average. Since we aren’t gavaging after nursing now, the hope is that he can self-regulate and wake up again if he gets hungry sooner, or possibly take a bigger feed next time. I really hope this works, though I’m trying to be realistic since we’ve been through this before.