Day 23, Monday, December 6

Tate had another busy day today. We got up to the NICU about 2 pm so that we could do his 3:00 feeding. Jamie and I had decided we should just do finger feedings for a day or two to let him practice his latch and sucking but when we got here the nurses were all running around taking care of a new baby and things were crazy. She stopped long enough to tell us she was really busy but she had lactation coming at 3 pm to help us. She didn’t even tell us her name but the new baby had really low blood sugar, needed a blood transfusion and lots of other stuff going on so she didn’t have time. We told her that was fine – we were just glad it wasn’t Tate needing all of her attention! So since the lactation nurse was coming and since it seems to be their standard practice, we decided to try breastfeeding again for a little bit, then do a finger feed.


The lactation nurse was a different one from yesterday and I liked her much better. She was much gentler with Tate and although she was going back and forth helping another mom, she still spent a lot more time with us than the other one did. We weighed Tate and then she showed me how to do a cradle hold and we got him started. He did better today than he did yesterday. Latched on right away and sucked some. We spent about 15 minutes working with him. He doesn’t stay latched very long and only sucks a few times before he gets tired. But when we weighed him afterwards he had gained 2 grams! The nurse said not to expect too much, and I don’t know what too much was in her mind, but I was thrilled with 2! Seems like a lot to me for how little time he actually nursed. Then we tried some SNS and he took another 4 ml that way. We then tried some finger feeding but at that point he was too tired so she hooked the rest of his milk up to his tube and I kangarooed him while he ate.

While all of this had been going on they ended up calling in some extra nurses to come help. So it was another new nurse who hooked up his gavage feeding. I don’t know if they have relaxed the rules about our holding times or if the nurses are just feeling more comfortable since Tate’s getting bigger and his stats are pretty stable or if things were just so crazy she forgot I was still holding him but she ended up letting me hold him until 5:30. That was a full 2.5 hours including the nursing time! And then I asked to put him back because I was 2 hours late to pump and needed to go do that. At one point when she came in to check his temperature she asked where his shirt and hat were at. I told her he hasn’t been wearing either and she said that because his isolette was getting close to 26.0 that he should be dressed, swaddled and wearing a hat when he’s in there. 26.0 is room temperature. His isolette was at 27.5 so I didn’t think it was really that close to 26.0, but she’s the one in charge. So when I came back from pumping it was time for his 6 pm assessment and she brought me a little outfit to dress him in after I changed his diaper. So I got him dressed in his first outfit! Probably not normally a huge deal to new mom’s but a big deal to me! It was hard to figure out where to put all the cords and wires but I got him all dressed and his leads were all still hooked up by the time I finished. But the preemie outfit is still ridiculously huge on him.

Jamie got to do his first finger feeding when he went up at 9 pm. Unfortunately, Tate didn’t do so well for him. He took 2 ml but he kept gagging either on Jamie’s finger or the tube. But we’ll get better at it. Tate now weighs 3 lbs 10.1 oz. Even less of a gain than yesterday but hopefully he’ll get more used to the breastfeeding and handling and start gaining more.

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands…” Psalm 91:4,11-12a

Trying to crawl out of his isolette.  I moved him once and he scootched right back over there.