Holding Derek

Yesterday morning, they took the tubes out of Derek's little nose and throat. He gave Daddy and Jiu Jiu (my brother, Alan) a hearty cry. At 2:00 pm, I was able to feed Derek his first 5 ccs of breast milk, although it's questionable how much actually got in there. They also had to put him under a UV light to lower his bilirubin levels. He's slightly jaundiced. Nurse Theresa also told us that his electrolyte levels are slightly low, so they were going to give him some potassium.

This morning, my mom and I went to see him for his 11:00 feeding. Theresa said that he didn't do so well with the feedings overnight and they had put a feeding tube in his nose, but they hadn't used it yet. His heart tube came out, though. I fed him a 17 cc bottle of formula and he sucked perhaps too anxiously and had the same problem of formula coming out his mouth. But after a few ccs, he gave me a burp, gave a little grunt and let out a bloop. Yep, he did a big old BM. Theresa said if he didn't take the formula orally, she would put it into the feeding tube. It's as if Derek understood what she was saying. He then very slowly and deliberately took about 10 ccs without dribbling at all. I helped him at first by holding his chin and cheeks, but then I let go and he was doing great. He took a break with 5 ccs to go, then came back for a couple more. Then he fell asleep. So cute.

He had also received boluses of calcium and magnesium, in addition to the potassium. Hopefully, that will fix his electrolyte deficiency. He needed new IVs because they weren't lasting long and he would get irritation.

The feeding consultant came by at 1:15 pm, but decided it was too soon to feed him again and said she would come back at 3:00 pm to feed him and see how he was doing. When she did, he once again stepped up to the plate and did great. He sucked down 10 ccs in no time flat without any dribble. Theresa told him that he was making her look bad. He dozed off a bit, then came back to finish off strong, finishing of the 17 cc bottle with flair.

Shortly afterwards, Theresa told us that his bloodwork looked good, which meant we could take him out of his tanning bed and hold him for about 45 minutes. I let Wai Po have the first crack at him. He is sooooo tiny! Then I got to hold him. First time since he was born. It felt really, really good.