With the "equivocal" result still keeping us in isolation, we enjoyed a last day of fun in our private room. Audrey smiled and watched me closely, and for the first time I watched her trying to mimic the movements of my mouth as I spoke to her. The tiny coos coming out of her mouth melted me to pieces. After a lot of work throughout the weekend, my milk production had come back up a bit so we planned to increase the ratio of milk to formula so that we were only using a small amount of very concentrated Nutramigen to fortify her calories, just to encourage faster growth. Dr Downey, the surgeon, stopped by to coordinate schedules so that we could have a chat when Justin could be present, and once again I felt confident that we had made the right decision to work with him. Ann Camp, our Nurse Practitioner, told me she was very concerned about Audrey's consistent low blood sugar between feedings, so they were going to resume every three hour feedings around the clock rather than letting Audrey sleep through the night, thinking maybe she just wasn't old enough yet to handle that six hour night stretch between meals. Another swab of her nose was sent for testing, and late that evening I heard that it came back negative-- it had taken more than a month for her body to totally eliminate the common cold virus. We had a very exciting moment though-- when it was almost time for her food, she started smacking her lips and turning her head side to side, a "rooting" reflex that I had worried she'd lost. For the first time in a month I decided to try dry or "non-nutritive" breastfeeding, and bless that little thing, she knew right what to do. Though she's never eaten by mouth in her life, she wanted to nurse, and when she fell asleep in my arms afterward... for a few minutes everything was right in the world.
Just thought she looked happy today. Smiley and cute.
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