The biggest challenge & moving out of the NICU

As many of you know, the past several weeks in the NICU have been focused on feeding.  The fact that Molly is not eating enough on her own (from her bottle) is the only thing that's keeping her from coming home.  She's had a feeding tube (which runs through her nose to her stomach) almost since birth, and she's still dependent on it for feeding.  It's made her a bit lackadaisical about taking her bottle.  We've been working hard with her to increase her intake, but eating is a bit more complicated for our little one with her anatomical differences, and we don't know exactly what's causing her to always quit at a certain point.  Progress has been slow at best, as she has been eating the same tiny volume from her bottle for the past 5 weeks. She knows how to eat from the bottle, and always starts out eagerly, but her enthusiasm peters out after about 15 ml, and she refuses to eat any more.  

A couple of weeks ago, we put Molly in our own Bottle Bootcamp for a day.  Her daddy and I spent a 12-hour day with her strictly working on feeding.  Instead of following the regimented feeding schedule of the NICU, we let Molly decide when she was hungry and we'd offer her the bottle at those times.  We hoped that by the end of the day, she'd realize that she had to drink from her bottle if she wanted to get a full belly, and that she'd be hungry enough to eat more than usual.  Unfortunately, she never ate more than her usual, and she never even got fussy with hunger even after a long 12 hours of eating next to nothing. (See?  Told you she was laid back!)

Pictures from Bottle Bootcamp...

Getting a good night's rest before the big day

You're not going to make me eat more after I burp, are you? 

Taking a break in my bouncy seat

Playing possum 

Since we are making no progress in the NICU, Cameron and I have decided it is no longer beneficial for her to be there.  She's medically stable, she just needs to be fed via her tube.  Developmentally, she needs a more enriching environment.  So this Thursday, we will be moving Molly from the NICU to the Rehab unit of the hospital, where she will enter an intensive feeding program.  It'll be better for her in multiple ways.  She will have her own room where a parent can room-in, so either Cam or I can stay with her and do the vast majority of her care and feeding.  She will get therapy 3 times a day for feeding, as well as physical therapy daily.  The potential for progress is better there than in the NICU, and we are hopeful that it'll be just what she needs to get over this hurdle and be able to come home in a few weeks without her feeding tube.  If she doesn't make progress in rehab, we will bring her home with her feeding tube in place.  

Please pray for Molly's success in the feeding program, that any obstacles to her success will be removed, and she will have the desire, endurance, and ability to eat all of her nutrition from her bottle and have her feeding tube removed.  Pray for our patience and endurance too, as we spend even longer hours at the hospital with our girl working to reach our goal of bringing her home soon eating orally.