The Bennetts: Our Little Family

June 21

Hannah had another KUB (belly x-ray) this morning, everything looks perfect; no signs of NEC. She also had an echo (heart ultrasound) this morning. It had been a while since she had one and they just wanted to make sure everything still looked good. Her heart looks pretty good. Her aorta (which had been grafted and readjusted during surgery) looked like it could have been narrowing. The doctors told us they would keep an eye on this but didn’t seem concerned as her vital signs have look really good for someone who had undergone her surgery.

We have started Hannah on bottle feeds again! She is struggling a little more than I would have hoped. She has to relearn how to eat all over again; I was hoping she would remember how, and take off as soon as the bottle touched her mouth. Unfortunately, she has to build up those muscles all over again and relearn the motions.

June 22

Hannah is pretty consistently taking 15 mL (1/2 oz) by bottle, each feed. We then give her the rest of the milk through her NG that runs for two hours. We are hoping to condense this time to the point where we can go back to gravity feeds.

So here is our funny quote of the day: “It’s a good thing we make cute kids, they may only have half a heart but they sure are cute!” We figure you need to be able to laugh about it.

June 23

Last night Hannah took an average of 15 mL by mouth each feed. She is getting 70 mL each feed, so this small amount seems so insignificant. But according to the speech therapist, this small amount is still a major accomplishment. Just the fact that she can suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time is a big step.

For her noon feed today however, she took 38 mL by mouth! Such a big improvement, let’s hope she can keep this up.

Our little girl is feeling so much better

Hannah with her Wubbanub, or as Jack calls it, Hannah’s frog bacon (Jack calls a binky a bacon). The frog is attached to the binky to hold it in her mouth better, best $10.99 I have ever spent.

Jack update

Jack is still having a blast in Alabama; I am really struggling to be away from him though. He probably doesn’t even care that we are gone; he gets to play with papa, nana, and Uncle Craig all day long. I miss him so much; Skyping everyday just doesn’t cut it. To top it all off he has been sick this past week and it kills me that I can’t be there to snuggle him. Although, it’s probably a good thing I can’t snuggle him right now though because that would mean Hannah would probably get sick too, and that would be really bad.