Seven week itch...and blowing off steam

Brummy14

Our 29 weekers are 7 weeks old today! And, wow, that time has flown -- they're each over 5.5lbs and growing so well.

Now the vent...we are literally stuck at a bottle feeding standstill. We introduced them a little over 2 weeks ago, and still no dice. One of the girls got to 30% by mouth one day, but they both are generally 10% or less. One just hangs out and seems relatively uninterested, the other is SUPER eager (most of the time), with a great suck, but just ends up choking and having major episodes. It's gotten to the point where I don't even want to be around during feeding attempts, since that's so hard to watch.

I know that one of these days they'll just 'get' it, but after weeks of seeing nasty, scary choking episodes, it's really, REALLY hard to convince myself that will ever happen. ::sigh:: I'm not even super impatient about getting them home (although that would be nice) -- I just want to be able to not be terrified of bottle feeding attempts. It's impossible to watch.  

 

Missa_g

Happy 7 weeks! And huge hugs to you. Learning to suck, swallow, AND breathe is tough. It took my boys almost a month to "get" it and we still struggled a bit when they came home. It will get easier for all of you, although I totally get that it doesn't feel that way.

thishappyhouse

I had an extreme choker.  A & B every time, several times she had to be bagged, people running into the room... the whole works.  It was awful.  Im pretty sure I cried more in those 5 weeks than I did during the 7.5 weeks that she was on the vent.  It got better, one week (unfortunately not one day... it wasnt exactly like a light switch) she got it.  We were on the verge of a g-tube actually.  

I hope your girls "get it" soon.  It is incredibly frustrating and  scary and no one can seem to get what you mean.  When my daughter was in very critical condition people got that she couldn't breathe, was very sick, etc.  But when she couldnt eat... people couldn't wrap their head around that.  So vent here when you need to.

Obrntwinmom

Ugh I remember those days. My daughter hated nipples and I felt like we were torturing her to just try to feed her shed scream so loud. My son was like yours, wanted so badly to eat but would always Brady multiple times a feed. I don't know if you have tried this yet but for my son we finally had to feed him laying down on his side. Gave him just enough of a pocket of air and the milk didn't pool in the back of his throat. That was a life saver he wouldn't have come home my guess is for a couple weeks if we hadn't done that. We fed him like that for a couple weeks at home too til he graduated and we fed him upright. Good luck, it will come, but man it feels like forever. Just snuggle those babies, they'll get there soon :

DrRx

I totally know what you mean about not looking forward to feedings.  Adalyn would have "episodes", even after we got her home, where she would desat and brady.  It was so frustrating when the feeding would be going so great and then, boom, brady and desat. She was on oxygen and an apnea monitor at home, and we knew what to do (bump up her oxygen, stimulate, etc) and she always came right back, but it was really stressful.  Looking back, I still can't believe all that we went through when we brought her home and dealt with all of those choking/desats.   As PPs have said, it does get better, so hang in there!

For us, we had to try to find the best nipple for her, and then the best position.  What worked for us in the NICU was to sit her on her butt and hold her upright with the bottle.  In fact, I still feed her like that on my lap (although it seriously hurts my hand now that she's so much bigger!) We did have some luck with having her eat on her side (my dad said she was like a Roman emperor, being fed while lazying about ), but then it stopped working. 

GL! I hope your little girls have better feeds tomorrow!