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| Excited about the good news! :) |
There is BIG news after Savannah ’s Cardiologist appointment today!! I
thought it would be easier to write it on my blog (more room).
(For my sweet readers I haven’t been on in almost a year!!
In that time I had a sweet baby girl, but I will update you all on that later.)
For those that don’t know, Savannah plateau on her weight
gain, then started to drop (she was labeled failure to thrive, like Josiah) and
we found out she need’s to weigh at least 10 lbs for her open heart surgery,
yet she was having a hard time getting to 8 lbs.
The cardiologist wanted me to pump and supplement my milk
with formula, since you can’t physically make more than 20 calories and they wanted
her to get at least 24. She is burning too many calories when she breaths due to
the hole in her heart (it’s like a work out every time she breathes).
Soooo…I saw a feeding specialist twice and we tried various
ways to get her to take fortified breast milk. Various bottles, a new device
they use (it sort of looks like a rubber medicine cup), and an SNS system (it
hangs around my neck and I tape a tube to me, so when she nurses it drips into
her mouth for her to get both.) Any hoo, she is so smart and doesn’t want
anything but mom and has refused all of our efforts.
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| Attempting Rubber Cup |
I have been trying over
and over again for about 3 weeks. I finally decided to use a syringe to feed
her with. I figured if she takes her medicine that way, why not milk?! It’s
slllooowww going and I spend a good chunk of my day just slllooowwlyyy
squirting 1 oz in her.
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| Syringe Feeding |
But between nursing and that, it’s working!! Praise the
LORD!! She has gained weight! She averaged out at 34 grams a day (they want at
least 30 a day). That being said, Savannah does NOT need an
NG feeding tube put in!!
The cardiologist said she would go ahead and present her
case the surgeon board next Tuesday and so we could move ahead with setting up
her surgery in a month or two (so that right there is good, they wanted to do
it immediately at 3 months originally). Then she decided to send us in for a
cardiogram so we could she where the hole in her heart was at (same or
smaller).
MORE good news….the hole has gotten SMALLER and is trying to
heal itself!! Praise be to GOD!!!!! Joseph and I have been asking the Lord to
spare her the surgery, yet we trust HIM if He chooses to heal her heart through
the surgery.
That being said I don’t have to go back for another 3 weeks.
Our nurse will continue to come twice a week to weigh her. If she continues to
gain we then don’t have to go back for another 2-3 weeks and….we can plan of
PUSHING THE SURGERY OUT until she is 5-6 months (as long as she continues to
gain.). If that happens we will at that time look at heart out again and
possible push it out further or even cancel it all together, if the Lord heals
it on it’s own.
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| Trying to smile at mom. |
We want to thank everyone for their continued prayers! And
ask for weight gain and healing for our sweet Savannah Rose.
For HIS Glory,
