March 13, 2009

(Here is the special pillow)

Today was a great day! Cohen had a huge weight gain and is now 4lbs 8oz! He continues to be cannula free and has not an A&B all day! His sats were a little up and down today, but he had a pretty exhausting day so it was to be expected. Why so exhausting? Well, Mr. Cohen had two 20 minute breastfeeding sessions! He was a champ! We made our first attempt at 9am and he latched on and went to town. However, the nurse hooked up his gavage feeding afterwards without checking to see how much milk he got from nursing, so poor Cohen got too full and projectile vomited all over. He wasn’t very happy after that. He worked so hard at nursing that he ended up sleeping right through his 12pm cares. We attempted breastfeeding again at 3pm, and again he did a great job. This time though his nurse checked to see how much he got (she sucks what is in his belly up through his NG tube and into a syringe to measure it, then she pushes it back into his tummy) and he got 10cc’s! He was still given his normal gavage feed, but this time he did not vomit. I am interested to see if they will change the amount he takes via gavage based on what he takes from nursing. Another change in Cohen’s feeding is his gavage feed’s fortification will change from human milk fortifier to a premature baby formula. We will have to give him 2 bottles of breastmilk mixed with the formula when we go home. This just gives him more calories than the breastmilk has so he can continue to gain weight.

Cohen has to lay on a special pillow. The occupational therapist noticed his head was a bit misshapen. It is very long and very narrow, and made me think it kind of looked like he was born vaginally. The therapist said it is common for preemies to have this happen and by using this pillow he should start to have a change over the next 3 weeks.

Other than that things are great. Cohen did show off for his doctor today by refluxing enough to spit up and having a major explosion in his diaper. The doctor said, “Well, his bodily functions are working appropriately!”