snowdeal logo

archives archives

ex machina


the eric update - day 54: his first "onesie"! and non-nutritive suckling!

eric's intravenous line was moved to his foot, so we were able to dress him in his very own cloths today!

pooh and piglet came over to check out his new duds and compliment his on being healthy enough to ditch the hospital outfits. pooh is particularly amazed at how big eric is getting, while piglet is confused as to why the bears on eric's shirt don't look like pooh bears. we received the shirt from beth, a friend of kris' who also recently had a preemie in the nicu ( thanks! ). i believe the shirt can be found at target and is one of the few preemie specific outfits that they carry in the store. it's a little hard to tell from the picture, but he still has plenty of room to grow in clothes, which is funny because they look so tiny compared to full-term baby outfits.

today, we reached a milestone that nicu veterans probably suspected was fast approaching when they saw the supersized paci. that's right, the sometimes long and complicated process of getting a micropreemie to breastfeed has officially begun with what's known as non-nutritive suckling. essentially, after kris has pumped ( charming phrase, no? ), she puts everything in place while eric gets a feeding through a tube. it's the first step towards getting eric to realize that food doesn't always come from a syringe; despite the fact that no feeding takes place, it has innumerable good side effect, from aiding in mama and baby bonding to helping kris to sustain her milk production. it's not unusual after 6 or 8 weeks of pumping for milk production to begin to fall off if real breastfeeding hasn't begun, so it's time to start trying tactics to keep production up, since even if everything does optimally well, it could be weeks before eric is able to coordinate the complicated series of events that need to occur for proper breastfeeding.

bookmark: del.icio.us ::digg it ::furl ::reddit ::yahoo ::
8/27/2004 11:14:00 PM 7 comments

7 Comments:

What a big day for you all!!!! Non-nutritive sucking was one of the highlights of being in the NICU... It was a major bonding step for Kyle and I! (Okay, I'll be honest, I cried the first time we did it - it was very emotional for me).

Tell Kris I'm pulling for her on EPing! I made it 7 months (with help of course), and didn't loose my supply until just after I came home (go figure). I'm sure she's working with a LC, but fennugreek, mother's milk tea, and reglan are a few things that can help... Oh, and believe it or not - tell her to eat a healthy bowl of oatmeal at least once a day (not the instant kind)... She should see a nice kick from that!

Domperidone was GREAT for me, but I stopped taking it after the FDA pulled it from the compound pharmacists list. I have friends that swear by it though... I just figured we had enough problems to deal with - KWIM?

Well, what a wonderful day!!! Congrats!

By Blogger Katra, at 12:02 PM  

Oh yeah!!!! I remember the first day Giovanni could wear street clothes. He was like a new baby and I felt like he was more real and was truly going to okay. Congrats to you!!!!!

Brittany from Florida

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:30 PM  

From jen@ceejayoz.com site: www.dadseyeview.com
(completely unrelated to your post, but...)
Hello, Jen here from Dad's Eye View, a message board for dads..(I'm partner to one of it's founders)
We've started a thread talking about our favorite fathering blogs, and you were one of the first ones listed.
Our forum is kind of slow right now--we're still just getting it going--but if you felt like linking to us, we'd greatly appreciate it!

--Jen

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:17 PM  

From jen@ceejayoz.com site: www.dadseyeview.com
(completely unrelated to your post, but...)
Hello, Jen here from Dad's Eye View, a message board for dads..(I'm partner to one of it's founders)
We've started a thread talking about our favorite fathering blogs, and you were one of the first ones listed.
Our forum is kind of slow right now--we're still just getting it going--but if you felt like linking to us, we'd greatly appreciate it!

--Jen

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:17 PM  

katra - thanks for the info on EPing. kris doesn't comment much on the site, but she reads everything and very much enjoys all your helpful information.

and brittany, you said it perfectly. seeing eric in street cloths does make it seem like he's truly going to finally be able to bust out of the nicu.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:31 PM  

WOW! Your freezer is a gold mine! Way to go to keeping up the milk supply Kris! You rock, and I can tell Eric is doing so well from that Mama's milk he's getting. :) Before you blink, you're babe will be big and strong like my exclusively breastfed 7month old!

By Blogger Suzanne, at 9:08 PM  

thanks suzanne! it certainly is a gold mine. the picture doesn't really capture how far back the bags go - the freezer is packed!

By Blogger e3, at 11:03 AM  

Post a Comment


[ rhetoric ]

"it is hard to be brave," said piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "it is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in the adventure before us."

the complete tales & poems of winnie the pooh

[ about ]

this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.

he's quite a fighter and you can always send him a postcard to the most current address listed here if you're inspired by his adventures. see the postcard project/google maps mashup to see a map of the postcards.

if you're new, you can browse the archives to catch up. and don't forget to watch a few movies that i made while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit. or if you want the abridged version and you can find a copy, you can read about his adventures in the november 2005 issue of parents magazine.



[ search ]

[ outbound ]

daddytypes / blogging baby /

rebeldad / thingamababy / The Continuing Adventures of Super-Preemie / dooce /

[ schwag ]

look snazzy and support the site at the same time by buying some snowdeal schwag!

[ et cetera ]

valid xhtml 1.0?

This site designed by
Eric C. Snowdeal III .
© 2000-2005