Update on Norah 5
Well, it’s official. The regular blog updates have been replaced almost entirely with Norah’s Story. Maybe someday this story will reach and end, or maybe I’ll find time during the holidays to post something worthwhile besides these updates, but until then…
Yesterday Norah had her weigh in. After a long wait at the hospital to get a quick weight and check (so I’m told as I couldn’t be at this appointment), we found out that Norah had only gained 56 grams in 5 days, which is just under 2 oz. Wow is what I thought. That’s it? This little bit of growth for the hours of work? I guess it could be worse, she could have lost weight. But come on. So the next plan is to increase the concentration of formula we mix into her bottles to the maximum strength. We had tried this a couple times already, but found it bothered her stomach, but I guess we will just have to deal with that now. But the best part of this new plan is that we have to wake her up at night to feed her. So her 2am to 8am stretch of sleep will now be interrupted. Norah won’t mind though as she has been learning the art of feeding in her sleep. This has actually been the best way for her to eat, but now it means alot less sleep for us.
So we will add one more thing to do to get Norah to gain weight and hope this one does the trick. The benefit of this last ditch effort is that we won’t have to be learning how to use an NG tube over the holidays. However, on Dec 29th we will go for another weigh in, and if she hasn’t made significant progress by then, we are quite positive she will need the feeding tube then. Please pray that Norah can gain weight over the holidays. So while you are finding it easy to gain weight over the holidays with Christmas baking, turkey and stuffing, remember that not everyone has it so easy. Please keep us in your prayers over the holidays.
Until next time.
Merry Christmas
Praying for little Norah over here. Do you know why she isn’t gaining weight? As in, is it because she’s not taking in enough or is her body not utilizing her intake?
Because of her heart issue she just gets to tired when eating. So it is because she can’t get enough in, but also because her body needs more than double the calories of a normal child her age. Think of it like being on a treadmill at an incline. You will burn calories faster. Well, she is doing this ALL the time. Now imagine the amount of work it takes for her to eat, and everything else that a normal baby does. She often falls asleep while eating because it just drains her.
Thanks for your prayers.