The beginning of week 8 started off a little slow, no big changes since the nasal cannula was removed. She tolerated her breathing like a champ and gained weight regularly.
On November 22th, I spoke with the neonatologist about starting the process of reducing the amount of tine her feeds were administered. For example, taking her from 32 mls given over an hour and a half and reducing it to 32 mls over an hour. He agreed to see how she tolerated it. Unfortunately, the first attempt was a little failed. She had a big spit up toward the end of the feed. This caused her to have some trouble with a big Brady and a series of desats and the nurse had to come over and suction her airways.
During this same time I started getting my fourth mastitis “attack”. I was feeling achy and frustrated considering I was in the middle of an antibiotic course from the third time I came down with it. Next thing I know I’m holding up my baby who is essentially choking in refluxed milk, trying to help her not struggle any more than she is. Jonathan walked into the NICU after work just about this time and I was instantly waterworks. I felt a little defeated with my situation mixed with Sofia’s barriers in nutrition.
Jonathan and I went home during shift change, after we decided that resting was the best course of action for my developing fever. We called when the NICU reopened to check on Sofia. They raised the infusion time on her feed to 1hr15min and she tolerated it like a champ!
By the next morning she was successfully taking her feeds over 1 hour and my fever was gone. It was time to tackle the rest of the week. Plus, we had family and Thanksgiving to look forward to. Lesson learned: the NICU shuffle is not just for babies and as quickly as you’re stepping back…you’ll probably be moving forward again.
