Day 8

2/24/09 - 34w6d

Rhonda and I went to see the boys around 11:00. They were stirring a little but not quite awake. I got to feed Dean but he was just not having any of it. He is up to 38 cc and he started off strong but stopped sucking at about 6 cc into the bottle. The nurse checked the contents of his stomach by sucking out through the gavage and showed me that there was lots of air in his stomach. Dean is swallowing lots of air and it is giving him a full feeling, therefore he doesn't feed. The nurse removed the air and pushed the milk back into his stomach. I really can't see how that does not bother them but apparently, it does not phase them taking it up the nose. After she did that, Dean downed the bottle. She also showed me how to push the air out of his stomach to make room for more milk. Dean is a gassy baby.

The NICU doctor called me and gave me a status update. Dean is about 1900 grams and they really like the babies to be about 2000 grams before going home. He is also taking 6 of the 8 bottles he is fed. This is very good progress. If he continues to gain 20 grams a day, he may get to come home in 4 to 7 days.

Samuel's temperature was down so the nurse kept him in the isolette and fed him in there. He took his whole bottle! He is currently at a little over 1400 grams so he has quite a ways to go. The doctor thinks a couple more weeks since he is so small. He has filled out some but he really needs to start adding in the lbs.