Cora Update

Isn't she a doll?!

 Oh my goodness, two teefers! I'm not ready for that yet, I'm going to miss her gummy smile.

I'm still in shock at how much the surgery has helped Cora. It's simply amazing and I become more amazed every time Ginette comes for her physical therapy session. She's a completely different baby, through and through. This week, Jordan wanted to tweak her diet so that she takes a a 80 ml bottle every 3 hours and put 25 ml through the pump. After two days, she should take 90 ml bottle every 3 hours and put 15 ml through the pump. She'd have her regular 12 hours drip at night with the same recipe/concentration and a different recipe/concentration for oral feeds. After four days, she should be at 105 ml every bottle and off the pump during the day.

I didn't even last one day with this diet. I forgot that the pump tubing takes 15 ml and those few 25 and 15 ml I was supposed to give her after a bottle, the pump would alarm at me, blah, blah. It was too much of a hassle. I also found that she wasn't hungry enough for a bottle after 3 hours. So I made up my own diet for her. I just decided to offer her the 105 ml orally every 4 hours, 4 times a day. That's it. No pump during the day but the same 12 hour drip at night. And she did beautifully! Sometimes she only at 2 oz or at the most 3.5 oz (105ml) but she did great. I'm glad I made the decision to let Cora tell me what she wanted and when. It was perfect and the Jordan (dietitian) said that's what the ultimate goal is anyway so it was fine skipping that extra step she wanted me to do since Cora was obviously ready. We are off the pump during the day!!

I have noticed that her congestion has slowly come back and her cough has been slightly wet again. Not good, I'm thankful Jan is there to help me watch for signs. In other words, she's still aspirating her milk even on the half nectar thick consistency. Jan ordered another swallow study which will be tomorrow-I'm very anxious for the results. In the mean time, we switched thickeners to the gel called Simply Thick and increased the thickness to nectar consistency. It's been a week now since she's been on this and I can see a slight improvement. I know it'll take a while for it to completely clear up, but at least she's not getting any worse and I think we're headed in the right direction with it.

She's a champ with the oat cereal. I'm only allowed to give her 1 teaspoon and she always wants more but I've noticed that it has really increased her appetite. When I give her a bottle after the oat cereal she'll take 4-5 oz! That's big for her little tummy. She's getting stronger and stronger everyday, still no major milestones yet. She's still not rolling over or sitting up but I know she's not too far off. Oh, and yesterday she turned 7 months! Overall she's still doing wonderfully and I'm so pleased with everything!