Lauren's weight is now up to 3 lbs, 6.8 oz...
12/20/01 11:00PM:
Lauren's feedings have been increased to 29 cc's every three hours. Her weight was 3 lbs, 6.2 oz tonight. They are changing the dressing on the central IV line tonight. It is not being used now, but they flush it with saline solution every six hours to keep it patent. When she has her surgery to reverse the iliostostomy they will need to use it again for TPN while her bowels heal up and start working again.
12/21/01 11:30PM:
Lauren's weight was 3 lbs, 6.4 oz tonight. Her feedings were increased again to 30 cc's (7 teaspoonfuls) every three hours. Lauren's cheeks keep getting chubbier and chubbier. Mommy says she looks like a little chipmunk storing nuts in them.... She's soooooo cute!!!
12/22/01 11:45PM:
Baby Lauren weighed 3 lbs, 6.8 oz tonight. She is still on 30cc feeds every three hours. Daddy fed her earlier this evening and Lauren finished the whole bottle in little over ten minutes. He noticed that her eyes are starting to lighten up and now look dark gray instead of black... It looks like she inherited Mommy's eye color genes and Daddy's appetite.
12/23/01 11:00PM:
Lauren weighed 3 lbs, 6.8 oz again tonight. Her feedings have been advanced to 32 cc's every three hours. Dr. Kanter (neonatologist) is talking about removing her central line. He thinks it's been in there far too long and represents a possible avenue for infection.
12/24/01 11:30PM:
Lauren finally reached 3 1/2 pounds!!! She weighed 3 lbs, 8 oz tonight. She takes her 32cc's very fast, and when she's done eating she smacks her mouth and slurps her lips as if she wanted more. Her stools are looking somewhat looser tonight, but as long as she continues to gain weight it shouldn't be a problem.
12/25/01 11:45PM:
Baby Lauren just didn't want to stay over that 3 1/2 pound mark... She lost weight again and tonight weighed 3 lbs, 5.6 oz... Her appetite hasn't suffered any, though. She still sucks down the entire 32 cc's just as fast as she can, and makes all kind on noises when she's done. I hope they up her feeds again soon. Dr. Kanter told Mommy he was going to pull out the central IV line tonight. When Mommy asked him if they were going to make us take Lauren home with stomas and ostomy bags he said that they would not. He said they want to keep her in the unit until the iliostomy can be reversed. Hopefully they will up her feeds some more so Baby Lauren can continue to grow. Is there Miracle Gro for babies???
12/26/01 11:00PM:
Baby Lauren weighed 3 lbs, 8 oz today. Dr. Kanter checked with Dr. Bufo today regarding pulling out the central line and Dr. Bufo's opinion was that if the line was going to be left in, they might as well use it. Dr. Kanter restarted Lauren on TPN today to help her gain weigh faster. She is now on TPN at a rate of 3 cc's per hour plus the bottle feedings of 30 cc's every three hours. Hopefully that should boost her weight gain...
12/27/01 11:45PM:
Baby Lauren weighed 3 lbs, 9.4 oz today. It seems the additional calories from the TPN intravenous feedings are helping. Her bottle feedings are back up to 32 cc's every three hours, and sometimes she acts like she is still hungry after she is done...
12/28/01 11:00PM:
Aunt Caroline and Uncle Carl visited Baby Lauren with Daddy today. Uncle Carl got to hold Lauren for a while and Aunt Caroline got to bottle feed Lauren and watch as her ostomy bag and her diaper were changed. Big Brother Preston got to see Lauren, but through the window. The time is rapidly approaching for his one-time visit inside the NICU. Maybe he'll be able to hold her for a while. Today Lauren weighed 3 lbs, 11.3 oz... Four pounds... here we come!!!