Morning update (Monday 2/14)

A couple of interesting developments overnight, all of which Carolyn monitored in real time with calls to the NICU. First, Max's head circumference increased 0.5 cm. Given the recent abnormal head ultrasound and the fact that the phrenology service has taken to haunting Max's crib again, the night shift at the NICU called for a neurosurgery consult. At this morning's rounds, Dr. S. seemed to feel that this was an overreaction to normal head growth. He phoned us to say that Max's head has been growing at about 0.5 cm/week, and that as long as it doesn't accelerate from this pace we probably won't have to give serious consideration to a shunt placement. However, our impression is that Max has crept back to the edge and is once again being eyed by the phrenologists. As before, there's nothing to do but to wait and see what Max does next.

In happier news, nurse B. tried bottle feeding Max last night. (As she predicted, he was wakeful and alert around 12:30.) After a little coaxing, and over the course of about 30 minutes, B. managed to get Max to drink 40 ccs of his new elemental formula from a bottle. (At the moment, a complete feeding for Max is 70 ccs given over 75 minutes.) The formula, a brand called neocate, apparently tastes awful. However, as B. pointed out, Max has never actually tasted any of the gallons of breast milk he's been fed over the past four months: it has all gone directly to his stomach (or sometimes even past his stomach to the duodenum). I think this might be the first time Max has gotten a significant amount of nutrition by mouth. Dr. S. was impressed enough to order one such attempt per day as long as Max can tolerate it.