Milk

Hello Abby again. Well I finally got Gib to share in my love of LOST. We are sitting here watching the first season while Ellie sleeps the day away. She should sleep a lot today because she chose not to sleep last night. She is drinking 6 mls per hour now, half of that is being pumped into her G-tube and the other half we give her in bottles through out the day. We got up to 7 mls a few days ago but she vomited a few times, so we are stalled today at 6 mls to see how she does and then we will add another ml tomorrow.

The milk she is getting is breast milk so yes, that means that I have been pumping for the past 12 weeks. 12 WEEKS! I have a very intimate relationship with my pump at this point. I am pumping because breast milk is so good for the baby and because there is a hormone in breast milk that aids in the development of the intestines. The doctors requested that I continue to pump as long as I can. So, for Ellie I will pump till she is 15 if needed.

When Ellie was diagnosed they told me that I would never be able to breast feed. They have to be able to monitor exactly what goes in her and what comes out of her. Since it is next to impossible to regulate how much comes out of the breast, it was not an option.

Right now we are trying different options for giving her milk and have found that we have the best success with using a NUK nipple on a bottle but offering the nipple upside down. It took us a while to figure that out and in the process the nurses suggested I offer her the breast.

My first response was, “don’t tease me.” Gib and I don’t know if we will have another child after Ellie, other than adopting, so this was my only chance to ever breast feed and I was told it would never happen. But, what the nurses say we can do is weigh her, feed her and then after she is done eating weigh her again. 1 gram is equal to 1 ml so once we have her hourly totals a bit higher she can breast feed instead of taking the bottle. Needless to say I am ecstatic.

So now I am attempting the struggle of teaching a 3 month old how to breast feed. It will be a struggle but, with help from the lactation consultants here I think we can figure something out. I am up for the challenge and I’ve got the time so, why not?