Milk...does the body good!

Today Dr. Kays stopped by to lower the flow of Makenna's oxygen from 300 to 200 and said they are looking to probably send her home sometime NEXT WEEK!  :-)

Until then this week and next week are all about feedings!  We began feeding attempts by letting her try to nurse for practice while continuing to give full feeds through her tube.  However on the third attempt with this method Makenna missed the memo that we were just "practicing" and took a what appeared to be a full feed from me....which was then followed by a full tube feed.  This of course resulted in a very full and uncomfortable baby!  They decided at this point that I will nurse her and then if she seems fussy I can offer 10cc's at a time through a bottle until she decides she's full.  At times when we do full bottle feeds she is given 55cc and allowed to take what she wants and have the rest poured into her feeding tube.  Then once she takes everything by mouth and doesn't use her tube for about 48 hours, they will remove it.

We quickly discovered that she is a much bigger fan of nursing than the bottle, which was both shocking and relieving!  I was hoping she would catch onto breastfeeding, but given the delayed exposure, the fact it takes more work, and her love of the pacy, I figured she would prefer the bottle.  That being said, for the time she is in the hospital it is important that Makenna both nurse and take a bottle.  She needs to eat every 3 hours and as much as I would love to, I just can't be up there for every feed around the clock.  If she didn't master the art of bottle feeding (and take all 55cc's) she'd never get that tube removed and we'd be stuck in the hospital forever!  Okay....Exaggeration. It would just mean I'd have to move into the hospital for a few days and exclusively breastfeed (not exactly the end of the world, just not ideal!) to avoid needing to use the feed tube.

Anyway, we decided to go to Target and buy lots of different types of bottles for her to try.  We brought them to the NICU and her amazing nurse tried a different bottle each feed throughout the night until he stumbled upon a winner!  Of course my child prefers one of the most expensive ones, but I am totally okay with that if she will eat well!

The next day I came in and nursed her for the 8am, 11am, and 2pm feed.  She did great and wasn't the least bit fussy in between feeds, so I assume she got enough to eat each time.   At 5pm I left and my mom feed her with her new favorite bottle.  She took all 55cc's in 10 minutes!  I came back for the 8pm feed to nurse and mom stayed for an 11pm bottle--she did great for both of these as well!  Her nurse took over the 2am and 5am bottle feeds and thankfully she did great with these too!  I am so proud of my little girl--she made it 24 hours without needing to use her feeding tube!  She also gained a little weight in that 24 hours (7.66lbs to 7.69). They are hoping to see a gain of 20-30 grams a night, Makenna is currently gaining 1-3, so she definitely has a ways to go, but thankfully she isn't loosing weight.  Also, so far Makenna is able to digest her milk and isn't spitting up.  CDH babies are known for having bad acid reflux, so while we aren't seeing signs of it yet, she is on medicine as preventative measure.

After 36 hours of successful feeds, Makenna's NG tube was removed!  Now she has one less line and a little bit more of her face was revealed!  She only has oxygen now, which Dr. Kays says she will probably go home on.