What we thought was going to be a busy weekend with company turned out to be rather mellow. Jason got into Portland around 10:00 Friday night after a horrible drive with the rain and rush hour traffic. Zoe was very excited to see him and promptly forgot all about wanting to breast feed or bottle feed. We spent the whole weekend with her being fussy any time we tried to feed her. The second I would lay her down she would start crying. The second we gave her a bottle she would drink about 4-5 ml and then throw it all up. We knew this was going to be frustrating, I had just thought we were off to a good start. The aunties, Julia and Fried, came to see Zoe on Saturday. They were so excited to hold her finally. This was the 4th time they've come to visit and the first time to hold her. Zoe slept calmly for Julia and then decided to throw up some on Fried, Oops. So far she's managed to throw up on all the visitors but not me. The 4 of us took a little time away from the hospital on Saturday night and went to a greek festival which I think we were all expecting to be a little affair and turned out to be a huge shindig with hundreds and hundreds of people. we had a great time eating greek specialties and people watching.
Sunday was a big day for us. We got moved to the other side of the NICU- level 2. I thought we would never get here. Not only that but Zoe got a private room with a view. Yeah for me!! We have now hit the two extremes of the NICU. It's really great to have the extra space, now that she is 8 weeks old and we are able to hold her more there is a lot more interaction and of course it's great to have the room and privacy for feeding purposes.
Today, Monday, Zoe had a great day. We started off wrking on the feeds again and today I'm trying a different tactic. Zoe is supposed to get food every 3 hours: at 8, 11, 2, and 5. However when we try to stick to that schedule half the time she is asleep or just plain worn out. SO today I tried snuggling with her and then feeding her whenever she was awake. Usually this meant that we would start about 45 minutes ahead of her feeding schedule. I woudl just hold her for a little while and then give her the passifier (which she loves) and then try breast feeding and then back to the passifier so she didn't get overwhelmed by the feeling of milk in her throat. This tactic made a world of difference. SHe took 12ml, 15 ml , and 8 ml and the 3 feedings. Which is a huge deal for her. Last week we were doing good to get one feeding a day be remoteley successful. Who knows whther or not this will all work for tomporrow but for today it's great. Zoe is also off the high-flow oxygen and onto a nasal canula with low- flo- we're getting there!! She also is almost off her morphine. I think they are planning on trying to discontinue it tomorrow. Her TPN and Lipids( the IV fluids that have been sustaining her for the past 8 weeks) also got discontinued today because she is now able to get the caloires she needs form breast milk. Dr. Baker said that we could start looking at going home in a month, give or take a week. That is the first time we have had anyone give us a vague date. Very exciting!! Right now the concentration is all on getting Zoe to feed and to slowly ween her oxygen as she grows more capable of breathing on her own.
