Sacked Out

Grandpa came back last night (Tuesday) to hold Henry. Henry took some bottle, but pretty much sacked out. He was in the deepest sleep that I've ever seen him in. After Grandpa left, Jeff gave him some milk here and there, but for the most part, Henry slept. When Jeff tried to put him in his crib, he woke up and fussed. So Jeff spent the night on the couch with a sleeping Henry on him. At one point, both Jeff and Henry slept for two hours straight! We are hoping that this signals a turning point. We'd like to experience the normal levels of exhaustion that new parents face, rather than the rather extreme levels that we've been dealing with. Having Henry sleep two hours straight a couple times a day would be a huge improvement for us (heck, him sleeping two hours straight even once a day would be a big improvement for us).

This morning (Wednesday), we decided to come up with a new feeding game plan. Henry's reflux has been much more manageable over the past couple of weeks. He does spit up a lot, but I'd characterize it as more normal baby spit up episodes and not true reflux. As I've mentioned before on this blog, reflux and spit up are not synonymous. Baby spit ups are normal. Medically diagnosed reflux, while common in preemies, isn't healthy and requires medication (and sometimes surgery...thank goodness we didn't have to go there). We got rid of the Danny Sling a few weeks ago (not that Henry uses the crib much), which has allowed us to put the Angelcare monitor in place (requires a flat surface). So we are moving forward on the reflux front. We hope to make more use of Henry's crib than we have in the past.

In terms of feedings, Henry still eats every 40 minutes to 1 hr 15 minutes on average. However, we think that with his reflux under control (hope I'm not jinxing us by saying that), we can now push him on increasing the amount that he takes in any one feeding and increasing the amount of time between feedings. So, today's goal was to make Henry wait at least 2 hours between the start of each of his feedings. He had a few feedings that contained over three ounces per feed. We are hoping that we can have a cycle where he (a) eats a large amount, (b) sleeps after eating, (c) wakes up and plays for a while, and then (d) begins the cycle again by eating a large amount.

My dad came for an hour and a half this morning to hold his grandson. We weighed Henry at 10 lbs 10 ozs! He's gaining weight rather quickly, so we've decided to reduce the amount of calories in his fortifications (from 24 cal to 22 cal). We are thrilled that he's gaining weight, but we want to make sure that he doesn't put on weight too quickly. That wouldn't be great for his health. I've been using a website (http://medcalc.com/growth) to monitor his growth. There are problems with a lot of growth charts because they are based on babies that have been raised on formula (breast milk babies tend to weigh less on average than formula babies). Even when age has been adjusted to their due date ages, micropreemies often don't make it on the standard charts. They grow at a different pace than do full-term babies. Consequently, there are special preemie charts that take that into consideration. When Henry was born, he was small for his gestational age, but on the charts. Then, he fell off the charts during his NICU stay. He was not on the curve, but for the most part, his growth trajectory did track as it should from week to week. I had a conversation with Dr. Wispe when we were in the NICU about the growth charts. He said that head circumference mattered most, then weight, and then height (which he didn't think mattered much overall). We've been able to plot Henry's head circumference on the charts for a while now, but his weight and height have lagged below the normal bands of the curve. Well, today, I was able to place both his head circumference and weight on both the full-term baby and preemie charts. It looks to me like his weight is just above the 10th percentile on the regular charts. His head circumference is at the 10th percentile. His height isn't at the 5th percentile yet. On the preemie charts, his head circumference is in the 1 standard deviation band (just above the -1 SD mark), and his weight is almost touching the -1 SD line. His height is around the -2 SD mark. He's making a good deal of progress.

Grandma Kenski came over this afternoon to watch Henry. Henry had been playing in his crib, watching the mobile. I had to go to school for a faculty meeting. I also met with some of my undergraduates (there's a test next week).

When I came home, Jeff was playing with Henry. Jeff was holding Henry's red chicken (named Dennis) and moving it around. Henry was tracking Dennis' movement with his eyes. He was also turning his head when Jeff moved Dennis out of his eye-sight range. It's nice that Henry is doing so well with his eye coordination. We can now really play with him. I can tell that everyone (Jeff and my parents) are having a lot of fun with Henry. Jeff admitted to me that he had been concerned about Henry not tracking things with his eyes. Today, that concern has been resolved.

Kathy the pulmonologist nurse finally called back. Jeff had called her yesterday. She had talked to Dependable yet, but said that she'd get back to us today. Basically, she said that she faxed them the order for the oxygen sleep study on 10/3. She didn't know why they hadn't contacted us yet. She said she'd fax them the order again. A little frustrating because Jeff had called her a few times after 10/3 saying that Dependable didn't have anything on record. Hopefully, this will get straighted out this week. She told me to call Dependable tomorrow. As usual, the parents have to straighten everything out, because the medical professionals won't do the follow-up.

Jeff turned Henry over to me for a while. Henry's new achievement for me today was the squeal. He's learning how to communicate different sounds. He repeatedly squealed for me when I smiled at him.

Henry was in deep sleep mode again this evening. Hopefully, our new feeding approach will allow him to get more rest as well (if he doesn't have to eat all of the time).