The Stinkachoo 3/13/13
Melissa
Hattie ate a full bottle overnight after her 1:30 a.m. hands-on time and was gavage fed at 4:30 a.m. Hattie slept through her 7:30 hands-on time and her 10:30 feed this morning. When breastfeeding, we rely on a scale to tell us how much Hattie eats. We have to weigh her before she eats and then again right after. The milk weighs 1 gram per 1 cc, so we know how much she ate by taking the difference of the two weights. After I nursed her at 1:30 p.m. the scale first read she gained 16 grams and then read she gained 118 grams! We weighed her for a third time and a 118 gram gain flashed across the scale. Imagine the look on our faces. There's clearly something wrong with that scale because it's impossible she could've eaten that much! So we took the first reading and assumed Hattie ate (a more possible) 16 cc.
Chris came to the hospital early today so we could take the infant massage class. The developmental specialist gave us several techniques to massage each area of Hattie's body. We practiced on baby dolls to help us learn the strokes. Even though we could barely keep our eyes open, we learned some things that should be good for Hattie when she comes home. Thankfully we were provided a handout so we can revisit it once Hattie is big enough to handle a massage.
After the class, Chris and I took advantage of having a few extra daylight hours together and went on a dinner date to Jason's Deli. Any place with free soft serve ice cream is alright in our book.
Hattie didn't wake up for her 4:30 p.m. feed. She took her whole bottle for me at 7:30 p.m. and then Chris and Hattie kangarooed. She was fed through her tube at 10:30 p.m.
During kangaroo care, Hattie pulled out her feeding tube. When we put her back in her bed, Nurse Jen carefully threaded the tube back through her nose. This, of course, made Hattie sneeze. But it wasn't a normal sneeze: it also came with a toot. Chris has coined this as a stinkachoo. The whole thing made me laugh out loud. I guess Hattie didn't like that I laughed at her because her bottom lip instantly popped out to make a pouty face. It was so cute to see her pout for the first time!
We spent a long time talking to Jen and Maria tonight. We are fortunate to have such wonderful primary nurses who really love Hattie ... and us. They tried to put our minds at ease about Hattie's eating progress by letting us know that this is the hardest part for parents and reminded us that Hattie is just acting her age.
Hattie weighs 2,311 grams or 5 pounds, 1.5 ounces.
