We are into a new routine with Foster and feeding. Twice a day he gets to attempt nursing and then gets a bottle with the remaining amount he needs. To determine how much he is ingesting during nursing, he is weighed before and after breast feeding. This morning he seemed to be productively nursing for about 3o minutes...I was so confident he had gotten his whole meal. But when we weighed him, he had LOST 2 grams during the feeding. I think he was working so hard he was burning more calories than he was taking in. It's all practice at this point, so with time he and I will hopefully learn how to do it correctly (luckily they have great lactation consultants on staff in the NICU....they are incredible!). When he consistently takes at least 50% of his two bottles (the other 6 feedings are still through the tube), he gets bumped up to 3 oral feedings a day, then 4, 5, etc...When he is ingesting 75% of all his feedings orally, they can consider sending him home. Hopefully we will be able to integrate breast feeding into his totals, but more importantly, we want him home ASAP (even if it means primarily on a bottle at this point). We'll have plenty of time to work on nursing once we are home!
Monday, June 8, 2009
More show than action
We are into a new routine with Foster and feeding. Twice a day he gets to attempt nursing and then gets a bottle with the remaining amount he needs. To determine how much he is ingesting during nursing, he is weighed before and after breast feeding. This morning he seemed to be productively nursing for about 3o minutes...I was so confident he had gotten his whole meal. But when we weighed him, he had LOST 2 grams during the feeding. I think he was working so hard he was burning more calories than he was taking in. It's all practice at this point, so with time he and I will hopefully learn how to do it correctly (luckily they have great lactation consultants on staff in the NICU....they are incredible!). When he consistently takes at least 50% of his two bottles (the other 6 feedings are still through the tube), he gets bumped up to 3 oral feedings a day, then 4, 5, etc...When he is ingesting 75% of all his feedings orally, they can consider sending him home. Hopefully we will be able to integrate breast feeding into his totals, but more importantly, we want him home ASAP (even if it means primarily on a bottle at this point). We'll have plenty of time to work on nursing once we are home!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Better every day!
ReplyDeleteLove, Roy
Absolutely addicted to your blog, Liz and Chris! I feel like I know the little Foster pretty well, with all the great commentary and pictures. Very very nice! Foster is so beautiful, and a great trouper.
ReplyDeleteLove from Aunt Libby