More feeding issues today. We have now stopped the higher calorie feeds for Paige. She continued to have huge residuals and over half of each feed was sitting in her belly without being digested. She was put back on straight breast milk this afternoon and we weren't allowed to hold her or attempt breastfeeding tonight, which was hard. The neonatalogist today came in and said "we are stuck." That is how I feel, too. We can't keep her on the higher calorie feeds if she can't digest them and utilize the calories, however, they are still far from their nutritional goals and aren't getting enough for adequate weight gain. Her idea is to give her a break until the morning and to try to introduce a dairy based fortifier to bulk up the milk. This is meant to fortify breast milk (the other stuff really isn't and is just used for those that can't do dairy) and is also higher in protein. We are hoping this helps Paige...and if they tolerate it, it may mean a dairy diet for me again:)
Andrew is doing a little better than his sister but is also having bigger residuals than he has more recently. He was also super fussy tonight and was awake and crying for over 2 hours. That was hard, too, because there isn't much we can do to comfort them right now and they aren't allowed to be out of their isolettes for very long. It broke our hearts to just sit and watch him cry without being able to pick him up...
The good news we got today is that Jack is a match for Andrew. THANK YOU to all of you that contacted us volunteering to donate blood and sorry we haven't gotten back to some of you already. For now, we are okay with what Jack was able to give, but we may need more later. It would mean a hike to Annandale, Virginia, though so we hate to ask that if we don't have to...
Today wasn't the greatest day, but we are hoping for better news and feeding tolerance tomorrow. We are due for a step or two forward, right?!?
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