No More Feeding Tube! 3/24/13
Chris
On the heels of yesterday's momentum, today continued to be a great day of progress for Hattie. Even though Hattie ate all of her feeds yesterday during the day, we were a little worried about how she would do for her 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. feeds this morning since she normally is sound asleep for those. However, when Melissa called during her 5:00 a.m. pumping time, Nurse Rachel told her that Hattie had not only eaten both of her full feeds, but she was clearly ready for full feeds on her own because she pulled out her feeding tube. Hattie has pulled out her tube before, but this time was different. She pulled out the tube and ripped the tape off her face. When Rachel checked on her at 1:30 a.m., Hattie was holding the tube in her hand as if to say, "I'm done with this thing!" This is just another indication that Hattie is in charge. Since Hattie did so well with her car seat yesterday, we brought in her bouncy seat (a great hand me down from her cousins!) to see how she likes it. It was definitely a new sensation for her and we think she enjoyed it. Her little mind is still developing and it is easy for her to get overstimulated. The seat vibrates, plays music and has little dangly toys in front of her—that's a lot for a baby who spends most of her time staring at the ceiling. Nurse Kristi showed us that when Hattie turns her head away from stimulating things like that it means she is done. So, when Hattie turned away from the toys and music, we removed them and turned off the vibration. That calmed her a bit and she enjoyed the rest of her 20 minutes or so in the seat.
Our sweet friends the Burkett's brought us Tijuana Flats and we had a picnic lunch together in the hospital cafeteria. We loved seeing their adorable girls Claire and Finley. Finley was born just a few weeks after Hattie and we know they'll be fast friends!
A major storm rolled through Central Florida this afternoon. We were under a tornado warning and as the storm approached we could hear everyone's iPhones beeping with weather alerts and could see it moving closer through Hattie's window. Hattie had just eaten and should have been asleep, but strangely remained wide awake as I held her like she had a sixth sense and knew something was happening.
As the weather worsened, I stood and took Hattie to the other side of the room so we were away from the window. At about the same time, all of the lights and medical equipment flickered as the power went out and the hospital's emergency generators took over. A nurse ran around the pod closing all the curtains; hospital policy, we were told. This was clearly a big storm.
Melissa took Hattie from me and I walked to the window to see what was going on outside. I told Melissa that if we saw a funnel cloud coming we would simply unplug Hattie's monitor leads and walk toward the interior of the building, away from the windows. But as I looked out the window, I couldn't see anything but grey. The wind was violently throwing the rain at the window and not even the street below was visible. Then, as quickly as the storm arrived, it stopped, the air conditioning kicked back on and life slowly returned back to normal in the NICU.
After the storm, our friend Katie, albeit a bit shocked by the storm she had just driven through, came to visit. Katie wins the award for most frequent NICU visitor! We chatted for a while before Hattie received her final vaccine. We held it over from yesterday because we didn't want her to be fussy for her car seat trial.
We went to dinner with Katie and ran into Dr. Brown from the hospital. She had seen Hattie the night before and we commented that Hattie was ready for her tube to come out. Dr. Brown had said it was only a matter of time and told the nurse that if Hattie pulled her tube out that maybe it should be left out. At the restaurant, we told Dr. Brown about Hattie pulling the whole tube out, tape and all, and she was thrilled.
Later tonight, Dr. Brown came by and saw how well Hattie has been doing with her feeds. She has eaten 14 in a row so far since yesterday morning! Dr. Brown was impressed and changed Hattie's order to a rather complicated "flex" schedule. Hattie is more in charge now. She has moved from her feeding schedule of 48 cc every three hours to being able to take up to 60 cc. If she eats between 45 and 50 cc in a feed, she can eat again in three hours; if she eats between 55 and 60 cc in a feed, she eats again in four hours. This is a big step toward a full ad lib feeding schedule and we're confident that it is around the corner. And of course ad lib feeding is really the only thing standing between Hattie and going home. For that, we are ecstatic and so very thankful.
Please pray for Hattie to continue to take her feeds from her bottle so that she doesn't have to go back on the feeding tube and so that she can be one step closer to coming home to live with us.
