Miss Caitlin Elizabeth had her appointment with her feeding therapist today. Her therapist works in the NICU (but didn't start here until right after Abigail left the NICU) and last night I went out for drinks with a family from the NICU and one of our favorite nurses, so the nurse talked to our therapist ahead of time and we got extra special treatment! :) Anyways, this lady (who we really like) thinks it's a feeding issue as well. She realized that Caitlin doesn't breath when she eats...her coordination of sucking and breathing isn't developed yet....and it sounds simple and you may wonder why we didn't notice this, but the truth is she does breath, just not often enough so she chokes.
Anyways, long story short, for the next 48 hours, we are only bottle feeding (no formula though, just pumping) and using a preemie nipple on the bottle. Rob and I were trained on how to feed her by reading her signs and basically every 5 or so seconds we have to stop the liquid flow and wait till she breathes, then give her more. It's tedious, but she really thinks it's gonna help! If this doesn't work, she gave us
some special stuff to thicken the milk and we'll see if it's thicker, if that helps. So we are going to try this and get back in touch with her (She's actually leaving for a mission trip so we have her home number...people like to give us their home numbers)! We hope this coordination develops...she sees this a lot with preemies (Abigail had this but she was so little and we expected it) and thinks this will help. Rob and I aren't 100% sure this is the problem, but we are willing to try it and we really really hope this is the answer! If this isn't the answer, then we will see a different Pediatric GI at Children's Memorial in Chicago. In addition, we just have to continue to control her reflux because that's a seperate issue that is just adding to it! For Caitlin's sake (and our sanity) we are praying this is the answer we have been looking for!
Other than that, Caitlin is starting to look around more and we are starting to get the cutest little smile! During tummy time, she will hold her head up for a few seconds. We expect a lot of progress once we get her breathing under control!!! Here are two pics of our little lovebug!
Our Princess
Bring on the smiles!!!!
5 comments:
What a pain! But, I hope it helps... maybe a few days of this and she will be on a roll!
Oh yes, and great pictures!
i feel so bad for little caitlin, as well as you, rob, and abigail! i can't remember the last time i called you and didnt hear her crying in the background. feel better, caitlin. you will enjoy this world much more when you arent crying!
Well hopefully that will do the trick.. I remember feeding Ava like that. I am sure it will all straighten out!!
I really hope this does the trick! Hang in there!
Crying aside, you are very cute Miss Caitlin!
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