Coburn Kids

First off, Adessa had her echo up at Primary Children’s on Friday and she was perfect through it. She watched Cars and laid perfectly still while they did it, such a big girl! The excellent news is that she does not have another hole or defective heart valve. She has only an innocent murmur that sounds atypical. She’s fine and there’s no follow up needed so this is a huge relief for us.

All right, as Caden’s Mommy I have officially opposed his Occupational Therapist. Caden has only been getting 4-5 ml’s from his feedings. I’m in contact with some other cleft mommies and I’ve spoken with them about his feeding issues. I tried to communicate some of the ideas to the Occupational Therapist but she wouldn’t listen. So I went up for his nighttime feeding and decided to feed him the bottle that I think he should have with the method I discussed with the other cleft mom’s. He took in 12 ml’s! His highest ever. I went up again today and he got 8 ml’s. Still more then what the OT’s are able to get.

I imagine the OT will not be happy on Monday when she comes in and sees that I’m doing it my own way. I have to say that I love and appreciate the OT’s. While I’m being a bit dramatic, I do feel I know what I’m doing while feeding him and they have given me valuable tips to help. I just don’t agree with the choice of nipples they are giving him on his bottle which are clearly WAY too big for his mouth. He is getting tired and frustrated with the other nipples and the OT refuses to give up on them even though it’s not very successful. I’ve switched Caden back to the Haberman nipple and am giving him a few squirts in his mouth every couple of sucks he does. The OT for some reason wants Caden to do all the work himself. After talking with some other cleft mom’s they’ve told me that their healthy full-term babies still had to have the milk squirted in their mouth up to 4-5 months of age. He just doesn’t have the mouth structure to feed effectively and I couldn’t understand why we weren’t helping him out a bit more so just switched the nipples and did it myself. Not to mention that these bottles and nipples are made to be flexible for just this very purpose.

So Caden is growing well, he’s up to 2150 grams (4 lb. 12 oz.) and is on .75 flow for his oxygen. He had 1 grade 0 A&B yesterday morning. He’s so calm and alert when he’s awake, but watch out if you are late on feeding him. He gives many cues and signs when he’s ready to eat and if you aren’t watching for it he’ll get himself all worked up. He has 2 new roommates and Caden is officially the healthiest baby in his part of the NICU right now! He loves being swaddled with his hands up near his face and mommy’s finger is the best pacifier he has found. He’s just a little doll and we can’t wait until we are able to bring him home.