First off, thank you for all of the vibes/thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to have people pulling for B & I!
Berrit was able to keep a gain of 2 oz on for the past 24 hours-which is huge for her! If she is able to gain at least another 1/2 oz by tomorrow at 6 am, we will be discharged Monday with followups twice a week with our pedi. The current thought is that she has severe silent reflux and an extremely high metabolism.
We were changed from prilosec to prevacid when we got to the hospital and she immediately was able to relax, eat, and sleep on her back. This is her 3rd reflux med and is only available in compounded form and, of course, is not covered by our insurance.
The other component is that she has a very fast metabolism. We have always been feeding on demand, which meant clusters at night and stretches lasting from 1.5 hours to 3 hours (4 at first). Our Dr's are thinking that she's burning too many calories in sessions longer than 30 minutes. We have added in a supplemental nursing system (essentially a bottle you attach to a bra strap and instead of a nipple it has a small feeding tube you tape to your breast that supplements the baby with milk from the bottle as she eats from the breast) to try and increase the amount she eats during her session.
Pretty much, we will probably be going home tomorrow (yay!) but if B is not gaining weight at a decent pace for the next 2 months, we are back in for more invasive testing that they are really not wanting to put her through at this age/lack of weight if we can try aggressive feeding changes and hopefully have found a refulx medication.
On me: with the suggestion of our nurses and dr at the children's hospital, I went back to my hospital (about 30+ minutes with traffic) to the er for my breast. After another ultrasound and exam, The antibiotics have yet to start showing signs of working, the infection has spread to the lymph nodes under my armpit, and my cysts are bigger, but no abscess. The doctor who did my ultrasound on Friday was in so he was able to get the best comparrison and thought that my breast actually looked worse on both the u/s and externally.
I have an rx for heavy pain narcotics, but I can't nurse on them, so I'm holding off for now. I finally got some milk from pumping last night and it now feels like there's a 10 lb bowling ball on my chest instead of a 30 lb one. I'm doing constant heat and ice rotations trying to keep it from getting worse and pumping every 3 hours after nursing. I have an appointment tomorrow at 1 with my midwife, the breast specialist I met with Friday and another u/s if deemed necessary.
Thanks for all the T&P again.
Re: Updates for -long
William born 7/12/2000
Andrew born 10/30/2011 (9lb 4oz at 37 weeks)
I want to cry for you, that all sounds so awful! Sending you thoughts and prayers as always that you and B both get back on track quickly!
((HUGS!)) I hope you get to go home soon!
My chest hurts just reading that. I hope you can get some relief soon!
So glad that B is gaining weight. I hope she can keep it up!