111 Days - There is a light at the end of the tunnel
Today is day 111 and there is a bright light at the end of this incredibly long tunnel. At the beginning of last week, we were still preparing for discharge around the end of October, but things have drastically changed. We were warned a long time ago that the feeding pathway would be their hardest challenge, especially since they were born so early. It seems easy to all of us, but suck, swallow, and breath is really tough for little guys, especially for ones that have had such extensive lunge trauma. The eating pathway has 4 phases. Phase 1 is where they have to eat at least 75% of their feeding volume by bottle one time per shift or in a 12 hour period. Once they do that four times in a row, they can start on the next phase. If they have one off shift, they start back at the beginning. Phase 2 is when they need to eat 75% of their feeding volume by bottle two times per shift. Phase 3 is exclusively bottle feeding on their own schedule and phase 4 is very similar, except they take o...