Three Pounds and Progress!

Post date: Dec 16, 2010 3:20:54 AM

December 15 (PM) - The last two days have been days of good progress in several ways....

• Julia --- Julia is feeling much better. There has been no recurrence of mastitis or clogged ducts. She also is resting well. In addition, yesterday we had her 6 week follow up appointment with the doctor who delivered Grady Jeremiah. He is pleased with how well she has done since the delivery in healing and in milk production. He also provided very encouraging words about future pregnancies for us. After studying what happened and looking at her placenta in detail, they could find no infection and no known cause (idiopathic) for this pre-term labor. As such, he does not think that there would be any problems with future pregnancies. Please pray that Julia will be able to continue to rest and stay healthy.
• Grady Jeremiah's Weight --- Our boy is growing well... He passed the three pound mark yesterday!!! The doctor said he is gaining 22 ounces per kilo every day. At this rate, they think he could be around 4 pounds somewhere near Christmas. He continues to digest his feeds well, and they have increased the feeds again, now to 26 cc every three hours. There also has been no sign of necrotitis intercolitis (nec), a serious infection of the gastro-intestinal tract that can occur in premature babies. Please pray that Grady Jeremiah will continue to stay free of any infection, continue to digest his feeds well, and continue to grow.
• Breathing --- Grady Jeremiah still is on room air! We are so encouraged to see him day after day breathing well without extra oxygen in his isolette. Last night he only needed a "whiff" of oxygen one time. Premature babies' lungs are not fully developed, so there is no room for extra air and oxygen. If they forget to breathe, their blood oxygen levels quickly drop. Even when he has these lapses, he is doing better returning to normal breathing and blood oxygen saturation levels without us having to stimulate him or the nurse give him a whiff of oxygen. Please pray that his breathing lapses will continue to decrease.
• Nursing soon --- He is still too young to know how to suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time. However, the doctors want to start him early on learning how to do so. Beginning today, during one or two feeds a day our little boy will have opportunities to get accustomed to nursing. Today's 10 minutes on Julia was mostly him sleeping, but he did try to begin nursing a few times, and the lactation consultant was very pleased with this first step. The doctor wants to attempt going straight from the OG feeding tube to breast feeding, skipping the normal bottle stage. Please pray that Grady Jeremiah will soon learn how to breast feed, especially while still breathing :-)
• Kangaroo time --- The nurses and doctors encourage us to hold Grady Jeremiah on us each day. On Tuesday we were able to hold him for around 4 hours, and yesterday we were able to hold him for around 3 hours! He rests so peacefully during this time.
• Second bath --- Grady Jeremiah has done so well that the nurses decided it was time for his second bath since being born! He did great with it. To see pictures, go to our previous blog post from today.