Today's daytime visit was a little rough, and maybe it's because the 3 months is starting to really wear on the two of us. We need to keep telling ourselves that the current situation is temporary, and will probably only last another 3 weeks or so.
We have been trying to "nipple" Aidan as much as possible. By nipple, this means to feed by breast or bottle feed, rather than gavage him for feedings. We have determined that Aidan can really only handle bottle feeding at every-other feeding. Trying 2 feedings in a row usually results in a nasty de-saturation at burp time. Aidan simply does not have the stamina to handle eating from a bottle every 3 hours. Also, they are trying to wean Aidan off the high-flow cannula, and have his flow down to 2.5 liters / minute (down from 4 a couple weeks ago). I think this is also making it a little harder on Aidan. He does wonderfully when he is calm and peaceful. But he seems just a little more delicate than usual. The lower flow on the cannula, along with pushing him to feed more by bottle is really wearing him out.
It's Sunday again, so it's measurement day. Before the weighing, I told Pat that we needed Aidan's weight to be at least 2045, because that would get him to the 4 1/2 pound mark, making it 4 Sunday's in a row hitting 3, 3.5, 4, and now 4.5 pounds exactly. I told her she had to keep re-weighing Aidan until 2045 appeared. She got 2045 on the very first try! Here are the particulars:
Weight: 2045 grams (4 lbs 8.1 oz)
Height (better known as length because he's laying down): 41.75 cm
Head Circumference: 30.25 cm
So this means in the last 7 days, he has gained/grown:
- 199 grams (7.0 ounces)
- 0.75 cm (1/3 of an inch)
- 1 cm (about 1/2 of an inch) around the head
Tonight's visit with nurse Pat was better, and the 11pm feeding went much smoother. We told them to feed Aidan by tube at 8pm so he would have more energy at 11pm:
Used some of the infant massage techniques to try to get Aidan to feel better during burping:
As the days and weeks pass, I see so much progress and growth in Aidan. I just wish he had the same progress with his lungs. He definitely has "cruddy lungs", as one of the nurses put it a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure Dr Kaempf is right, and Aidan will come home with us on oxygen. Our thinking is that this will be around week 38, which is sometime after November 7th. We'll see how the next 3 weeks go. Then the real work begins. It's scary to think that we will be caring for Aidan alone after then. I've always said that babies are pretty much indestructible, and most new parents worry way too much. I think this is different.
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