Today we spent a little more time at home and a little less time at the hospital. When we there this morning it seemed like our little guy needed to rest and the stimulation of having us touching him and reading to him was causing him to drift and spell more, shallow breathing leading to drops in heart rate.
Barnaby has gotten his milk amount increased steadily over the past week. All of this happens through a little orange feeding tube that goes into his mouth and runs all the way into his stomach. He can’t eat on his own yet because the “suck, swallow, breath” coordination is something that even full terms babies can have a difficult time with and is a complicated maneuver that nobody expects him to master for a while.
But even learning to digest at the same time that you are learning to breath is difficult. A full stomach decreases the space for lungs to expand and requires extra effort. Plus, all babies spit up a little and that reflux stimulates the vagus nerve and causes drops in heart rate. Then, even after he gets it digested, “bearing down” to poop also causes drops in heart rate. All this is new to him and developmentally difficult for any preterm baby.
Breast milk is still the absolute best thing for him and many studies have shown the benefits of starting preterm babies on breast milk as soon as possible. In order to make the process easier for him they are using a timed feeding pump and are able to slow down his milk intake to a very slow 24ml over 90 minutes. Since he gets food every three hours all day, his 90 minutes off for rest and digestion in between feeds is also very important.
Since he has a lot to focus on, we are trying to figure out how to give him the space he needs despite our desire to spend every waking moment holding his tiny hands and talking to him.
Barnaby is finding his rhythm and so are we.
Barnaby 