The question of a G-tube.

Boy, it's been a crazy week! As always, just so exhausting.

The main issue we are now facing is the one of feeding Ian.

He's not making a lot of progress with the bottle. He'll take anywhere from 5 cc's to 20 cc's which is a small percentage of his full feed of 70 cc's. This is also only once in a 12 hour shift (although this might change to every feed that the nurse feels he's up to trying). It sounds like he's also not always super happy when they are trying to feed him. To me, he's seems to be becoming a bit more fussy in general as they wean him off of things and he matures, becoming able to express himself better.

He definitely seems much more comfortable nursing than with the bottle. Unfortunately, he doesn't take a full feeding that way either. He gets tired out but not as quickly as bottle feeding. Although, every day he seems to get better and I will keep trying more often.

So the question is, do we go ahead with the feeding tube or not. I'm sold on it, as it seems the best way to get him home as soon as possible. But Mike is a bit hesitant, and for good reason.

While heading out of the Parent Support Group Meeting one of the nurses walked me back to the NICU and alerted me that Ian was being placed on isolation because of a bacteria he had picked up. Originally, I was kind of freaking out. I called Mike and told him I was just going to tell them yes on the tube because we needed to get on with it in order to get him out of there. I wanted to make sure he was okay with that. He had just returned back from out of town and said he'd drive up to discuss it.

He arrived a couple of hours later. We had a conversation with the nurse and the fellow on. Mike asked all the right questions. What have they done to really get him to understand that when he was hungary, he could get his food from the bottle. Instead of just feeding him through the tube every 3 hours, why not wait until he was actually awake and crying for food, like you would with a "normal" baby? Have they tried different nipples? How long does it take to "get it" and shouldn't we give him a longer time to do so? These were all great questions, many of which I'd discussed with different nurses. By the end, we decided we'd give him another few days and see how he does.

Turns out the bacteria they found in his stool is something that most breast-fed babies have in their systems. In fact they said many adults have it as well. They tested his stool because he had some mucus in it and had one bout of diarrhea. When they did, the bacteria was found. Once they find it, they need to act on it, even though he's not showing any symptoms of having issues with it.

The reason I reacted the way I did was because of my fear of him picking up an infection, or something that will set him back, from within the hospital. Just one of the many reasons I want to get him home.

This coming week we will have meetings with all the various doctors within the departments that pertain to his issues. Those meetings will give us more info to go by. And by then we will make the decision about the G-tube.