Saturday, February 14, 2009

Evening update (Saturday 2/14)

For Valentine's day Carolyn and I took Felix to the zoo, where the animals were celebrating the holiday in their own style. (The gorillas were ripping up and eating the large paper hearts they'd been given.)

Max is now on his second day of the elemental feeding program. It appears that the change in diet has locked up his bowels, so we may be keeping a poop journal again (so far: nothing). Max spat up a little at his morning feed, although nurse K. blamed the vitamins and some jostling.

When Carolyn arrived at noon, K. was preparing to try another bottle feed of Max. He took 20 ccs and they think he would have taken more but he was swallowing faster than the flow from his ng tube, so K. was worried that Max was, in effect, compressing his own feed beyond what the NICU team are comfortable with. Max didn't show any signs of oral aversion, his vitals were good throughout and he didn't appear uncomfortable. Carolyn says he sucked calmly and steadily. We have to keep in mind that he's never been hungry, so oral feeding is something of a novelty for him, as opposed the necessity it represents for most babies. He hasn't made the association between sucking and relieving hunger. Nonetheless, he's done quite well with his oral feeding over the past day. Carolyn and I are extremely happy.

K. also reported that Max pulled out his ng tube this morning. For a time, he was totally untethered. K. reports that he looked just great, just like a normal baby.

Fun note: Max's formula, neocate, carries a label pronouncing that it is made in Liverpool, which is a city in England.

Carolyn held Max through two feeds. He was generally calm; when he got a little agitated Carolyn gave him her finger to suck and he calmed down. She tried to do some exercises with him but he was not a very playful mood. Max really just wanted to be held. Carolyn read to him and told him about our trip to the zoo. Max's two neighbors are on apnea monitors, which emit piercing shrieks at apparently random intervals so Carolyn and Max listened to those for a while.

Max didn't want Carolyn to leave this evening, and would start crying every time she put him down. She tried various strategies to settle him down, and finally put him tummy-down on his wedge staring at his butterfly. She patted his bottom as he reached for the toy and he relaxed enough to let Carolyn leave.

Max sleeping with crib toys