When we got to the room Harli was laying there sleeping, and right off the bat she had an episode. When I got looking though I think it had more to do with positioning because her chin was tucked tight to her chest. Harli's nurse repositioned her and everything went smooth for a little while. They raised her milk from 16cc's to 21cc's which means she was on full feeds now. The nurse practitioner came over and removed Harli's pick-line around noon, and could not get over how well Harli was progressing. They debated whether they should up her milk slowly or just do give it to her at once. The decision was made that she had handled her milk very nicely this week even when they raised her feedings. Needless to say hind sight is twenty/twenty.
They raised her feedings at eleven and she handled it very well. She really did not have any big episodes just one small one that she corrected on her own. When they checked her residual at two she had a little milk left, which is not uncommon after they raise her feedings, but when we got back to the room she was having difficulties. She started having several series of episodes where her heart rate was dropping into the fifties, and of course our nurse was at lunch and the other nurses were trying to figure out what was going on. Finally one of the other nurses realized she was having reflux, and yes it is kind of like the acid reflux which we adults get. Since Harli has a feeding tube the top of her stomach is always open and the extra milk which she is receiving today kept coming back up. Harli did not know what to do when the milk started coming back up and she would just quit breathing. When our nurse returned from lunch they lowered her syringe so it would gravity feed slower than normal, which helped her tremendously. Our nurse started explaining in more detail about her reflux and how it was causing her episodes. Let me remind everyone that this is another very common thing among premature babies. I wish they had a list of things to expect to help Blair and I cope with everything that goes on.
Our nurse explained that tomorrow they probably wont raise her feedings up and by not doing so it will give her stomach some time to grow and adjust to the larger amounts of milk. She explained that this is something that will probably last until Harli is about thirty-four weeks of age, so we have some time. Harli did much better tonight when they fed her at five and she seemed to be doing very well when we left at eight. We can not get over though how much Harli has grown and how she is starting to get the baby fat that most babies are born with. Harli weighed 1280 grams, or 2.13 lbs. If she puts on the same amount of weight tomorrow she will have blown through the two pound mark in a week.
This picture shows everything Harli is attached to and if you notice her IV pole is now gone since she does not have her pick-line anymore.
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