Day 98 in the NICU- December 5, 2012

We met with Victoria, the occupational therapist, today after work for about an hour and 15 minutes. She showed us how to give Avery a massage to help calm her down. She also showed us how to work with Avery on her neck stretches. Since birth, Avery has had to work hard to breathe and many times when she gets upset, she tenses up a great deal and squeezes her shoulders up. The stretches will help all the tension in her neck.

Victoria also taught us how to feed Avery with the special squeeze bottle. Tim tried it out today. I started working 10 hour shifts and will have an extra day off during the week so I plan on trying to feed her tomorrow. Victoria told us to allow Avery to suck twice on the bottle and on the third suck, to squeeze the bottle and the milk will come out. It is very difficult to feed her because not only do you have the typical problems of feeding a newborn but you also have the obstacle of her cleft palate which makes feeding even more difficult. You will notice in the pictures that Avery is kept very upright during feeding. It helps the milk go down her throat instead of up into her cleft.

Avery is on only .25 liters of oxygen. I have a feeling that they will discontinue it tomorrow which I am very excited about!

Pretty soon I am going to be bigger than Mommy!

 

Daddy is feeding me for the first time! He and I are both learning how to do this.

Nom Nom Nom (I don't want to talk with my mouth full)