Josephine is finally putting on weight. Last night she jumped 50grams to 3 lb 7 oz and tonight she put on 30 more grams bringing our weight up to 3 lb 8 oz. That's 3 big gains in 3 nights. YEA!!!!Sadly yesterday the eye doctor came and diagnosed her with some Stage 2 ROP....eye problems. BUT it's still correctable on it's own at this stage and she will be back next week to check again.
The speech pathologist came back today in the afternoon to try a bottle again. (well actually it's not a real bottle- it's a special bottle like contraption). It took Baby J a few seconds to remember what she should be doing....but then she started sucking on it. Her heart rate did not drop this time like on Monday, however her oxygen dipped a lot into the mid 80's. So the speech pathologist went to talk to the doctor about trying feeding with oxygen because she is ready to start practicing some with the bottle. The doctor said since it wasn't real bad that we could start trying feeding, but not to use oxygen unless we continue to see it happen. At this point Baby J had fallen asleep- however she had upped her intake from 7ml to 10 ml (which is 1/3 her serving of food).
So at the next feeding the nurse (whom was the first one we've had that I am NOT impressed with) almost didn't let me try because it takes Josephine a while to wake up. But I did get to and not only did Baby J increase her total amount to 12ml, she only dipped once below 90 and it was quick and bounced right back up. Baby J paced herself and I only stopped her once because I didn't want her tummy getting to much at once and thought she should have a break. And she didn't fall asleep on me. She just stopped showing interest in it. She might have tried after a couple minutes break but the nurse was kind of impatient and so she got the rest by her tube----however she did stay awake the entire feeding. The pictures above are after this feeding while the rest is coming in her by her feeding tube. I love that the last 3 days I've gotten to hold her a lot more and I think it's making a difference on her weight gain. Tonight at her 9pm feeding- the nurse didn't feel like she was showing enough interest or awake enough to try. She felt she was to tired. Of course after the feeding tube was started Baby J started sucking away gladly on the pacifier and even woke up. Oh well. We don't want to overwhelm her. The nurse said that it's unusual she did two feedings in a row and did so well. Apparently they also have a grading system when the babies eat and if they don't do very well or score low they can't try again for 12 hrs. That seems extreme, but is part of the reason why she decided it would be better to feed her via her tube. So I think tonight she is only going to try the bottle at the middle of the night one and not the early morning one so I can feed her at the first one I'm there for tomorrow.
I'm so excited to get to this stage. Partially because I get to hold her more. She loves being held. Today was a busy day for her with all of this going on- plus it was bath day. Grandma and grandpa came and saw her again today and we had a visitor from KCSL. They have been so helpful and supportive during all of this. I'm glad they are the ones I chose to work with.
Tomorrow I'm going to a huge kids consignment sale and for the first time am shopping for a kid of my own. I've shopped for relatives and foster kids...but this time it's for my baby. I'm so excited.....though I will have to limit myself cause of funds. that's ok.
Thanks for the continued support from everyone. I'm so glad that Baby J has so many people praying and thinking good thoughts for her. We are going to get this bottle thing down quickly and be one step closer to coming home.
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