Back to the C

Karsie is continuing to do well (insert the sound of me knocking on wood).

She is up to 21mL an hour of 22cal Elecare. Tomorrow she should go up to 22mL and then over the next few days her calories would be increased. We are not sure how many calories she will need per ounce, but there are a few different options for how to get there being tossed around. We will start with increasing the caloric value of the Elecare. If that doesn't work, there are a few different ways to add MCT oil or possibly flax seed oil. We are trying not to use rice cereal this time as it can slow down motility... and Karsie already has super slow motility (hence the g-tube/fundo).

Karsie is still growing. The last two days she has slowed down her growth a little, but still growing. Over the last 7 days she has grown better than any other time in her life! That is amazing :)

This afternoon Karsie was moved back to C-pod (the step-down unit). We are not in a private room, but we do have a good amount of space. We are hoping this means they plan on sending her home soon!

The nurse practitioners from the NICU and GI talked yesterday about some flavor options for Karsie in regards to her oral feeds (since she HATES Elecare). They decided to let her breast feed!!!!! She has a 5 minute time limit so she doesn't eat too much. Last night she didn't do well. She really just wanted to look around and see what was going on, and eating was taking away from that. Also, she has been taking her paci so much lately (which we like) that it can make the transition a little tricky. Tonight however she breastfed like a little champ! She ate for all 5 minutes and then I had to give her the paci back because she wanted to keep going. She gave me a great milk drunk face and fell right to sleep. That was a great moment! She might not get back to plain breast milk for a while, but what a treat to get to nurse her again!