February 1, 2010

We came in today to the surgeons standing over Lily's bed. Of course, there was a momentary skip in heart beats . . . but they were just doing rounds and checking her surgical site. They also made the decision to stop her continuous feed (she was up to 20 cc's per hour --or 2 ounces every 3 hours). Instead of her formula being continuously forced through tubes at a steady rate using a pump, the surgeons said that Lily can start to Bolus Feed.

A Bolus Feed is pretty simple. A plunger is set up above her and attached to her replogle. Then a full feed is poured into the plunger and gravity does the rest. At 9:30 this morning, she was given 60 cc's that dumped right into her belly in about 20 seconds. A full 3 ounce feed. We will see how she handles it. If she does handle it well, then we may be able to bottle feed her tomorrow!! If that goes well, the replogle tube in her nose may come out (which means no more tape). Also, her PICC Line (the IV in her arm) could be taken out. I just realized I never explained her PICC Line.

When Lily was first brought in to the NICU, the nurse said that they wanted to put a PICC Line into her vein. (This is the definition from Wikipedia.com: is a form of intravenous access that can be used for a prolonged period of time. A PICC is inserted in a peripheral vein, such as the cephalic vein, basilic vein, or brachial vein and then advanced through increasingly larger veins, toward the heart until the tip rests in the distal superior vena cava or cavoatrial junction.) PICC Lines are more stable than IVs since IVs only can stay in a vein for up to a week without the vein collapsing. The only drawback with a PICC line is that the risk of infection is magnified. Luckily, Lily has not had any problems with infection. Regardless, this is one tube or chord we cannot WAIT to be removed!!

Stop by later for more updates....In the meantime, some more updated photos:


LILY'S FIRST OUTFIT

SAY CHEESE!!

SLEEPY GIRL

MOVED TO A BIG GIRL CRIB

LILY'S CUTE PANDA SLEEPER

THERE ARE NO WORDS!

Evening

Lily's feeds went really well. She was fed at 9:30am and every three hours after that. You can tell by looking at her that she felt the formula hitting her belly....Her eyes moved around like, "Hey, what is that!?" There were a few instances after each feed where Lily gagged a little bit, but it looked more like she was gagging on her saliva than the formula coming back up.

Lily also spit up for the first time! It was a very little amount, and it didn't phase her one bit. She just kept checking out everything and everyone in her room, not caring that her T-shirt was suddenly wet and smelly. Tracy and I cheered for her first spit-up! HA!

The other good thing is that Lily is digesting everything so well! She took in a total of 280 cc's in and her diapers throughout the day weighed 271. That's fantastic....

Lastly, Dr. Caty came in during the late afternoon to check on Lily. He said the game plan is for Lily to continue with the Bolus feeds for the rest of the day, and then tomorrow (as long as she continues to do well), they will take the replogle tube out of her nose and we can start bottle feeding!! "Who knows?" he said . . . "Lily may be home by the end of the week."

We were speechless! Spending all this time (a month on 2/2) in the hospital, we think all the time about bringing Lily home . . . but it always seems so far away. Tracy and I agreed that we still need to take things one day at a time and just make sure that Lily is doing well with all of the changes to her routine.

But just imagine . . . . .