Hungry Hungry Hippo!

• Hungry Hungry Hippo!

  Written Aug 31, 2012 9:07pm
  Logan has currently been on an eating schedule where he gets to try milk by mouth every other feeding and rest the feeding in between. This is to conserve his energy so that he can work on increasing his volume without using up his oxygen reserves. I arrived at the hospital early this am so we could snuggle before the 9am feeding (by tube). At 9am Logan was wide awake, looking around, rooting for some milk, bringing his hands to his mouth. I was so disappointed that we had to put milk through his tube instead of letting him eat by mouth. However, I exercised patience and began to look forward to the noon feeding, knowing that he would be well rested for that feeding! I had stepped out and the nurse heard him CRYING (big deal for sleepy little bubs!) around 10:15am. He was crying because his feed hadn't gone in and he was hungry! Yeah for the heirachy of needs! However, all this meant that when it was time for his noon feeding, he wasn't hungry again, he was sleepy, and he didn't even wake up to eat.
  After discussing all this with the speech therapist, we decided to put Logan on "Logan's schedule". This means that he can eat by mouth every three hours IF he is awake and alert and ready to eat. However, we still have to follow the eat every three hours (versus on demand) at this point because they are very closely monitoring his intake and output.
  Moving on to the exciting news....at 3pm he took his first bottle while on "Logan's schedule" and he took the WHOLE THING! We have to finish the feed within 30 minutes to prevent him from burning too many calories. He finished in 20 minutes! Bill came up after practice and gave him his 6pm bottle and he took 45ml (half)! He's never had two feedings by mouth in a row so this is a big deal! Our hope is that he won't sleep through the next 4 feedings!
  We also heard the "H" word this morning. I am hesitant to say/type it out loud, so I won't. But the doctor did say that if Logan continues to progress at this pace we could be looking at a little over a week. Bill said we need to be "cautiously optimistic" about this. But if I'm the "glass half full" person and he's the "glass half empty" person, doesn't that mean we have a full glass between the two of us?!
  Enjoy the new pictures of Logan with his empty bottle and everyone (including Logan) giving a thumbs up after his first full feed!
  

  

  Our first empty bottle!

  
  
  

  

  Yep! He drank it all!

  
  

  

  Thumbs up little Bubs!!  (note that Lexi has confused her thumb with her pointer!!)

  

  My mom loves to just come and rock Logan...nothing sweeter than snuggling with him!