New Goals

First things first - here's Cael's most recent mugshot :)

Well...
We won't be going home today. In fact, we might not even be going home tomorrow. But for the first time in the past three days, I'm not feeling discouraged about that fact. I spoke with our favorite nurse, lactation consultant, residents and the consultant that's on today and it's a good thing that we're still here. The way they kind of described it was like this, when they have a baby that's say 32 weeks old, they'll gradually introduce breastfeeding. For example, one feeding a day, then two, three four etc...With 36 weekers on, its trial and error. Sometimes they'll take right off, other times not so much. They also mentioned that babies have more energy when they're 7% from their birth weight or less. Right now Cael's down 12%. So really - it makes a lot of sense why he gets tuckered out so soon.

So. Our new goal is this, we'll do 3 or 4 breastfeeds and see how he's eating and how his diapers look and if they're looking dry, we'll tube him. Hopefully in doing this, we'll gradually see his weight climb, his energy level grow and have his urine output increase as well. I just sat with the lactation consultant during our last feeding and we're tweaking the way I do things too, so hopefully with everything combined, we're that much closer to getting out of here. Cael's nurse said she doesn't think she'll be seeing us anymore on her next shift (which is Sunday night) so I hope she's right. In the meantime, that's where we're at. I'm taking my good ole antibiotic so I can get better and Cael will get some tubes. All in all, though it's not quite what I was hoping for, it's really what's best for Cael