I'm rather concerned about the weight loss and then failure to gain much. I'm not sure that the breastfeeding is a good idea at this point, because they can't tell how much he's actually getting. And it doesn't strike me as mere coincidence that he failed to gain on the two days when we substituted one of his feeds for a breastfeeding session. The other possibility, though, is that he's having to use more energy to keep his body warm now that he is out of the isolette.
We talked to Hans Bradshaw, Henry's resident, about pediatricians tonight. This was the first time that Jeff had met Hans. There are two practices that get involved early (e.g., they come and visit their patients in the NICU before they are released) that Hans has observed: North Hills and Catalina Pediatrics. North Hills has a new, young doctor who did her residency at UMC. She apparently comes down to the UMC NICU regularly. The advantage of her would be that she already has a rapport with the doctors in our unit. The disadvantage is that she is young. Hans and his wife had a 32-weeker. Their doctor is out of Catalina Peds. He said that either their doctor or someone from the practice visited the NICU every day. There is also a doctor on the east side of town who is supposed to be the top dog in the field (president of the academy of peds in the southwest) but he rarely takes new patients. We certainly want the best for our son, but we also want someone who has the time to spend on his case. I, of course, plan on calling around on Monday to figure this all out.
Holly came early last night so that we could give Henry a bath. He really enjoyed the beginning of the bath. Loved sitting in the water. He was very mellow through the first part of the bath. But he clearly didn't enjoy me cleaning his body. He cried through a good deal of it. We shampooed his hair at the end of the bath. He loved having his "hair" done.Holly changed out his cannula tubes at the end of the bath. This all took awhile. Henry was getting a bit fussy toward the end because, by this time, it was about 40 minutes past his feeding time. But once the food was in him and the lights were off, he settled down and slept.
1 comment:
Dear Jeff and Kate:
Joyce told us about Henry's Blog so we will keep up with Henry this way. We have asked Joe and Joyce about him and we are thinking about you all the time. As you have probably heard out daughter Cory was premature but not as much as Henry. She weighed 3.3 lbs and lost to 2.14. She was in the hospital for 6 weeks so I know a little about how you feel. The pictures show a darling baby boy!
Much love, Joyce and John
Post a Comment