Penelope's weight is 8lbs 5.5oz and 18.75 inches long. She's filling out nicely! Yesterday we started her on the at home feeding schedule. So she gets 60Q4 (2oz) of 27 calorie fortified breast milk during the day for 4 feedings by mouth OR by PEG. Overnight she gets 27 calorie NeoSure formula fed through a feeding pump into her PEG at a rate of 40cc/hr for 6 hours. So she gets 8oz of fortified breast milk during the day and 8oz of high protein formula at night. We have switched to formula at night because breast milk can't sit out for that long, and she needs more protein in her diet. We have put her on a feeding pump overnight because sleep = growth. We want her to sleep through the night, and I, too, would like to sleep. too!
I will consult with the neonatal nutritionist when we exhaust the supply of frozen breast milk. She will decide what formula we will go to at the point and make changes to volume as needed. At some point Penelope will just be given number of ounces to hit in a day. The goal is to have her take bottles during the day at her own pace. Then we subtract how many ounces she took during the day from the total amount needed. We make up the difference in the feeding pump overnight. It's the best way for us to regulate her nutrition without having to force feed her. Eventually she will be taking it all during the day and not needing any over night. Once we are doing that for awhile, AND she is growing appropriately, then we can have the PEG removed.
Her hernia incisions are healing nicely. Her PEG site is redder than they would like so the surgeon is coming up today to look at it. They did blood work, and there are no signs of infection, so they want to figure out what exactly is causing the redness. All in all she is doing really well.
We moved back to Bay 4 today because tomorrow we are going to be interviewed by a couple local TV stations as part of the marketing blitz before breaking ground for the new children's hospital. Our room in Bay 3 was far too small, and Bay 4 is the prettiest. So we are now back in Bed 52 in Bay 4. That is okay with me! They have added a flat screen LCD to this room since we were last in it. I knew they were upgrading them, but I am wondering it was a push to make sure the room has all the state of the art stuff in it before they show it off tomorrow!
Also I have added the link to "Penelope's Story" on the UI Children's Hospital website in the links section of the blog. I will also link the TV interviews once those are available.
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