Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.
Romans 12:12
Romans 12:12
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Park City Utah
2 years ago
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007 - Update
Today I went up to the hospital to meet with lactation at 9 am, but the speech/feeding specialist was able to meet with Olivia at 9 am and that kind of took priority. The speech/feeding specialist bottle fed Olivia to evaluate her progress. One of the things she saw is that Olivia has a great rooting reflex and her suck is extremely strong. . . . almost too strong for her own good. She sometimes gulps in too much and then doesn’t breathe or swallow. Next time you take a drink of something, try drinking without swallowing or breathing. . .it doesn’t work too well. They’ve tried pacing her and feeding her with slow flow nipples as well and it doesn’t help too much. She doesn’t have too much rhythm or organization. She has taken some bottles beautifully and other times she doesn’t even want to open her mouth at all. She also has a lot of pain from either gas or reflux that interrupts her feedings. She turns red and grimaces and about breaks my heart. Anyway, they tried some different positions and I went out and bought a Dr. Brown and an Avent bottle to see how she does with those. They are also starting her on some Mylicon, although it hasn’t been tested with preemies. Tonight we tried her with the Dr. Brown bottle and I can’t say whether it helped or not. She might have just been having an off night. Normally, we don’t get too freaked out anymore when she has a brady, but tonight she had the worst one that we’ve seen in a long time. She turned blue and became completely unresponsive. Her oxygen got turned up and we tried stimulating her and finally she came back up. I’d never been so happy to hear her cry. Tomorrow I am meeting with lactation to try breastfeeding again. It seems some of her problems could possibly be solved with breastfeeding, so please pray that it goes well. Any advice on the topic of feeding would be appreciated. Also, please pray that her eye exam goes well tomorrow. We’d love to see the ROP regress, but we’d be happy to just see it remain at Stage 1, Zone 2.
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7 comments:
Praying that you find some fedding answers for Miss Olivia. Have they mentioned starting her on any meds for reflux other than Mylicon? I know many of the preemie blog moms have kiddos on meds for reflux.
Claire was born 2 weeks early, which is in no way close to what you have experienced. But when she was first born and was nursing, she would start choking and turn blue because she quit breathing. I was frantic. I had never heard of this happening. I tried bottle feeding her thinking that maybe it was me. Nope, she still had the problem. I kept calling the Dr and they kept saying that it was fine. Finally, one of the Drs said that his own kids did that and that she just didn't have her suck, swallow, breath reflex down. Sure enough, at what would have been 40 weeks she figured it out. Be patient! It will all work out. Oh and the best thing for gas if you can do it is bend her legs and have her do the bicycle. Worked like a charm on my kids.
I'm so sorry to hear you had a scary brady. Our little guy (25 wkr) started doing those awful ones when he took bottles with phenobarb and vitamins in them!! Eventually we ended up getting the phenobarb in a tablet so he wouldn't get so upset. And by the way, he came home still having As and Bs once in awhile during feeding and it was scary, but it really DOES get better as they get older!
Anyway, you asked for a little feeding advice... take or leave what works best for you... but I would definitely try the breast feeding. We did mostly breastfeeding at the beginning (before Charlie would have been 40wks) and it seemed to really help him. We used a nipple shield (also really helped) that way he could kind of be in charge of when he needed a break. Of course, there were still ups and downs of days when he wouldn't be as strong as we would have liked and I was tired of how much work it was for both of us, but I would definitely give it a good shot. And also, just a mom to mom note, it felt really strange for me somedays to have what seemed like everyone in the world watching me nurse and evaluate what I was doing, but in the long run I realize how much it helped. (and don't feel bad if you do the bottle too, we did both and it's whatever works best for Olivia!)
I hope it goes well!! We are all hoping so much that Olivia will be home soon! And don't get too discouraged... we were in special care a month and then all the sudden they were talking mother-baby and we were home so soon! Once it clicks, things start moving fast!
Neva
I'm thinking of you and Olivia today Jodi. Okay well I do everyday, but I'm doing extra with the positive waves! :-) I hope you get good news with the eye exam and I hope Olivia does better with her feedings today. Poor baby. I hope things do click just like Neva said. Also, I had a really good time on Sunday. I'll see you soon!
Kerry
I work at ICS in Jax and have been following your blog since the twins were born. I know you have tons of advice coming in but I saw that Olivia was having some issues with gas. I don't if premies are allowed this but my son had a horrible time with reflux and gas. My friends mom made him fennel tea (very watered down) and I gave it to him straight and mixed with formula and it worked like magic. I had tried every remedy in the books and this really works. I just used sanitized water and ran a whole pot of water through my coffe maker with a couple tablespoons of fennel seeds instead of coffee grounds to make it. I am sure it will need to be a lot more sanitized for Olivia but just to give you the idea. I hope it works and I am praying for Olivia. Merry Christmas!
We had a really hard time bottle feeding our little guy, 29 weeker. He would have bradys everytime we'd bottle and most of the time w/breastfeeding. What we found that worked was going really slow-we'd let him take a couple drinks then set him up. It would take forever, but it worked. When I got home he would set off his monitor all the time with feeding, it just takes an enormous amount of patience and diligence. Another thing that worked for me is a breast shield. I, also, would pump a little before breastfeeding so there wouldn't be a large let-down when he wasn't expecting it.
If things go well with the Dr. Brown bottle, I have one that we have never used and you can definitely have it. Stay positive about her feedings. Kerrick still has his moments when he gets ahead of himself, doesn't breathe and gets all choked up and you know how big and healthy he is!
Shawna
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