Residual Effects

The nurses, doctors, and "premie" books keep warning us that there will be setbacks with Ben's progress. "Slow and Steady" they tell us "wins the race". Cousin Michael suggested "Don't get too high or too low, try to keep more even."

Clearly, this has been easy advice when your baby keeps moving forward. Sunday was the first day I felt like we had a setback. When the nurses check Ben's vitals, they all check to see if there is any residual breastmilk left in the bottom of his feeding tube (the part in his little belly). They do this by taking a syringe and extracting anything left in his tube. Up to Sunday, there had never been any residual. Sunday, at the 5pm check, there was quite a bit. It was pretty upsetting. Nurse Barbara tried to convince us that this was just one of those small setbacks, but my heart was just crushed.

When we called back after the 9pm check, we were happy to hear that there wasn't anymore residual. And there hasn't been any since. But, this really threw me for a loop. The residual effect on Momma P is that my worry level has definitely gone up. There have been a few more tears and a lot more reading of premie books.

The great news is that he continues to thrive. He's gained more weight - he's up to 3 pounds 6 ounces. He's getting vitamins along with his breast milk, and they are fortifying the breast milk to give it more calories. Hopefully Thursday they will start trying to bottle feed him (nippling they call it).

Today Baby Ben has a kidney and head ultrasound. Just routine, and clearly painless for Ben. Clearly worrisome for Momma P and Poppa P.

Yesterday, Nurse Margie dressed Ben. He's doing a great job of regulating his body temperature, so instead of warm air blowing around his incubator, he can wear clothes and keep himself warm. Above is a picture of Ben in his stylish outfit.