Her Happiness Breaks My Heart

Hana had a bit of a fussy night and in the morning I found some damp vomit on her bed and pillow. It always hurts my heart a little bit to think that she vomited at night an no one came to comfort her. But maybe she really is ok with it and its just me. This is the third time its happened.

About twenty minutes after she had all her morning meds, all were given a little on the early side, I very quickly pulled out her NG tube. She cried a tiny bit. Then I took her to see Paul and drink her morning milk. Unfortunately, it seems that the first milk of the day comes right back up. At least it is an easy vomit, not like her really bad retching vomit episodes. Unfortunately, she vomited on our bed, which is not protected for baby vomit. She recovered quickly and was back to drinking milk.

All in all, Hana drank 14 ounces of straight breast milk today! That is three more ounces than yesterday! Tomorrow, I will start fortifying it just a little to add calories and hopefully get her used to the taste. We didn’t have a whole lot of luck giving her Lasix, which is the only medication in the middle of the day that really needs to be given at a certain time. I tried letting her taste the Lasix from the syringe and dropping a little bit in her mouth but she was gagging before the syringe even hit her lips! Then she vomited a mouthful and I decided to try another approach. We put the Lasix in some of her milk and she very slowly drank almost all of it. I don’t even know if you can give meds that way, but I figured trying it once wouldn’t be terrible.

The most amazing thing about the day was how happy Hana was most of the day. All babies have fussy periods of the day or a few moments of unhappiness when they don’t like something and Hana certainly had those. But she was noticeably a much happier baby all around. She laughed and smiled more. She was more active and playful. She babbled more. I really think she was so much happier not having the NG tube and not being hooked to the feeding pump. It breaks my heart to think that she could be this happy every day if only she didn’t have that tube. If only…

It broke my heart to have to put the tube back in before bedtime. It is traumatic every time you have to put the tube back in – she cries and screams and gags and almost vomits and squirms. Its terrible. I imagine for nurses that have to do it for babies its not too fun, but to have to do it to your own baby really sucks. On top of all that, it almost felt like I was forcing her back into this unhappy state. I hate it. Afterward, I cried a little.

But, we move on. She saw the feeding specialist again today who still thinks she is improving, although slowly. Her drinking is certainly very promising. Hana is definitely more interested in playing with food, even if she is not putting it in her mouth. She is beginning to mimic us when we eat. It will come. I know the day will come when she is eating and drinking and the only reason we have the tube is for her meds. Now if only I could get her to take her meds orally!