Morgan turns four months old on Monday and is closer to coming home every day. She is still on some oxygen support but not enough to prevent her release from the hospital. Really, her difficulties with bottle feedings are the only thing keeping her there. The NICU only gives her 30 minutes to finish a bottle because otherwise she burns too many calories. Last week, it seemed like her reflux issues were the main culprit, but several times this weekend, keeping her awake long enough was the bigger obstacle to finishing a whole bottle.
This week we'll be talking with her doctor to decide the next step to overcoming this last hurdle. Since the medicine she is on seems inconsistent at best, it's possible that she would need a procedure called a fundoplication to take care of the reflux. Unfortunately, that would also require her to have a either a g-tube, or g-button placed for feeding purposes, at least temporarily, until she recovered from the surgery and is able to master bottle feedings.
In either case, it seems she is only a few weeks from coming home and we are very excited for that day to arrive. One of the things that four months in the NICU gives you is a new perspective. While another surgery and feeding tube are not something we look forward too, we realize how lucky she is for this to be her biggest challenge. The fact that Morgan has avoided so many other complications, and will most likely outgrow the ones she does have, is something Shelly and I are very thankful for.
We spent most of Sunday afternoon at the hospital with Morgan and took some video of how she spends her time.
...and repeat every three hours.
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