| The NICU Experience | Aaron update 13 |
| Subject: Aaron update 13 Date: Sunday, December 15, 2002 3:15 PM From: Kevin Quick To: Aaron Update List Feeding is working! Aaron is now being fed 1cc of Kathleen’s breast milk every 3 hours. If this continues to go well for the next day or so, he’ll be upped to 1cc every 2 hours. Very soon, the majority of his calories and other nutrition will be coming from this stomach feeding, and he’ll begin to grow at a faster rate. A growth rate of one ounce (28 grams) per day would be ideal, but is hard to achieve in preemies. Right now, at Aaron’s age and size, we should be hoping for 10 to 15 grams per day of weight gain. Lisa, Aaron’s primary day shift nurse, said that Aaron has been gaining approximately 5 to 10 grams per day, which is not bad. Once the breast milk feeding kicks in, we should see a good increase in his growth rate. In order to get an accurate picture of how his weight gain is actually going, we need to look at the weekly numbers, not just the more volatile daily numbers (Aaron actually lost 10 grams since yesterday, for instance, but his weekly numbers show that he is gaining). He’s at 710 grams today; his birth weight was 695 grams. Aaron had one bradycardia (slowing of heartbeat) while we were visiting this afternoon, but Lisa was not worried. She said this is part of the “normal” package for preemies. It was a little more disconcerting for Kathleen and me, who are used to seeing his heartbeat rock-steady at 150 beats per minute, to see it dip down to 70, and to have “BRADYCARDIA” flashing on the monitor, accompanied by some loud alert tones. A little prodding from Lisa brought his heart rate back up to 150 within about a minute or so. Kathleen got to change her first poopy diaper today (Aaron’s, that is). She’s feeling more like “Mom” every day, even though she and I are still in a bit of a fog over this whole thing. Here’s a picture of Aaron with his new cap, knitted by Mom Q. He has three new caps, each of them a different size. The green one, which he’s wearing now, is his smallest one. We’re looking forward to him growing into and out of all of them. God willing, we’ll get there soon enough. Thanks again for your love and prayers. Love, Kevin, Kathleen & Aaron |
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