Day 23: Learning to Eat

Liviana is continuing to make great progress. She is now on the final "level" of feeding, which is feeds every 2 hours over 1/2 an hour. They did lower her quantity a little since she has lost the weight she gained post surgery. She gets around 68cc's (a little more than 2 ounces). I got the go ahead yesterday to begin nutritive breastfeeding. I was so excited, as was Liviana. She did great the very first time. She nursed for about 7 minutes, although not continuously. I went up again late last night and attempted again. She got three little gulps and promptly dozed off. I let her sleep and cuddle with momma since I think the earlier feeding took a lot out of her.

They are repeating her echo on Tuesday and I HOPE her pressures will be down. One of the cardiologist is interested in seeing her because he has developed an interest in Pulmonary Hypertension (I guess he can't just stick to the heart). We will expect a visit from him soon.

She continues to have sats (oxygen saturations) in the high 90's which is just what we want to see. She does still breath a little rapid at times but that too has improved since removing the nasal cannula. They check her respiratory rate before I nurse her each time because they don't want her to be over 75 because it increases her risk of aspirating while she eats. I have a little chat with her to breath slowly before they do the check and give the go ahead for nursing.

She is beginning to gain weight, after losing all of the post-surgery weight. She is now back up to 7lbs. 6oz., 1lb. over her birth weight. I'm hoping she takes to nursing quite easily, starts gaining weight and heads home :).

She has become so interactive and interested in what is going on around her. She has cooed at me a couple of times and loves her mobile. I am going to find some other things to visually stimulate her while she kicks back in her crib. They had a volunteer cuddler come around yesterday morning interested in holding her. The nurse called me to see if it was okay and I shouted, "YES" into the phone with enthusiasm. It breaks my heart to think of her laying there alone when I cannot be there and I was thrilled that she could have some attention and interaction from someone. They said he read her a book and she LOVED it.

Baby Kelly is doing much better. Her mom gets to hold her again and things seem to be much improved.

I think that is all for now. More later on our little miracle girl.