Learning, Sleeping, and Growing

Post date: Jan 6, 2011 2:47:59 AM

January 5 (PM) - Grady Jeremiah is learning a lot, such as how to nurse and how to breathe on his own without "caffeine"! When he not been learning, he has been sleeping (and growing) quite well!

LEARNING HOW TO NURSE - We continue to work with Grady Jeremiah on his feeding. He is able to take between 8-10 cc (milliliters) of milk per 30 minutes of time breast feeding on a good feed. He actually can get more milk, but hasn't developed the coordination of swallowing it and breathing at the same time! We also tried him on a bottle twice today, and he was able to take 20 cc of milk via it in 15 minutes. It looks like we will alter his feeding plan again to now try both breast and bottle each day, but only doing one every other feed so that he can rest during one. Please pray that he will quickly learn both ways to feed. Please pray for the doctor, nurse, lactation consultant, and us to have wisdom to know the best approach for helping him learn how to be fed. LEARNING TO BREATHE WITHOUT "CAFFEINE" - Thank you for praying for his breathing as he is no longer on the breathing medicine, Aminophylline. Today is the first day that there is no longer trace amounts of it in his body. We can definitely tell that he is missing it. We are seeing more frequent drops in his oxygen saturation levels of his blood. Thankfully he can resolve most of them himself. It is good indication he is learning how to breathe well! He has needed a quick (5-30 second) oxygen boost on just a few of those lapses last night and today to help him get back to normal. The nurses say that is to be expected and they are pleased with how he is doing. If he continues this well, he will not need to be put back on that medicine. However, his breathing lapses today are a reminder to us that while he is doing well, he still is six weeks "premature" at this point and still has a long way to go before he can go home. One of the criteria for a baby to go home is that he or she must be able to go five days with no lapses in breathing. Please continue to pray that Grady Jeremiah will be able to breathe well on his own and that the breathing lapses will completely stop. SLEEPING - Apparently all of that work is tiring for such a little guy! Yesterday and today he has spent more time in deep sleep than any time we can remember. It may be because he is tired from the extra work of breathing without the medicine and from all of the work nursing. However, since he is no longer on his "caffeine" type breathing stimulant, he may be resting better. Either way, his deep sleep is good because that is when he grows.

Speaking of GROWING, his weight is now 4 pounds, 12.4 ounces! That is THREE TIMES his lowest weight after birth! Please pray that he will rest well and continue to grow.

In closing tonight, let me share two more pictures from today. Some of you may not like what he is learning based on what you see on his hat, but we hope it won't change your love for him or how you pray for him :-) We are just getting him ready for the big game on Monday :-)