Eliza is two months old today! What a long, strange
trip it's been...
Eliza celebrated her two-month birthday by drinking
some milk through her g-tube for the first time this
morning. They have started with small amounts of milk
and will gradually work her up to full feeds over the
next several days. She is being fed every three
hours, and has been doing very well with it so far.
It's remarkable how simple it is to feed a baby with a
g-tube; if only all babies had one! A feeding
involves simply opening a plastic button on her
stomach, inserting a small tube hooked up to a syringe
of milk, and turning on a pump. When the milk is
gone, we detach the tube and close the button and
she's good to go for three hours. This doesn't mean
she won't be able to continue working on swallowing;
once we're sure her stomach is working well, we'll get
started on that again, too.
For the first time since she became so uncomfortable
last week due to her intestinal problems, Eliza is
again having periods of content wakefulness; for over
an hour this afternoon while I held her, she was awake
and looking around contentedly. Over the past week,
she cried and fussed almost any time she was awake,
which we now know was because she was in quite a bit
of pain. So it's good to see her back to her old
self. Although no one wants to make any definite
plans (since Eliza likes to spring things on us just
when we least expect them!), God willing, she'll be
ready to come home by the end of next week.
Love,
dixie jax
