Also that week I started trying to put Cecilia on the breast. By now she was 36 weeks so she should be ready to try. Usually they try to put premature babies on the breast by 34 or 35 weeks.
Cecilia did seem interested but she just could not get the hang of it and she would get very frustrated.
The first week went by and Cecilia was still not attaching. That’s when Kate Taubert (she usually works in Ward 41 North but she was on her three month rotation) and other nurses (which I would love to mention their names but I haven’t asked them for their permission) suggested that I speak to Samantha Gordon. Samantha works as a nurse in NBS usually in Bay 1 and 2, but one of the many great skills that Samantha has, is that she is also a Breastfeeding Counsellor.
Meeting Sam was a breath of fresh air. She was always smiling, had heaps of knowledge and best of all she was of great support.
She introduced me to the ‘Breast Shields’ these are great!!! As you may know, not all nipples are the same and not all are easy for babies to suck on.
Cecilia did suck her dummy so she enjoyed sucking on the shield but unfortunately Ceci did not have the strength or the skill to suck hard enough to actually be able to feed by her self. We also started to notice that she would get very upset. Sometimes she could be trying for 45 minutes but my breast was still full. Something else was going on.
The Family Resource nurse (also a great person but I haven’t got her permission to mention her name) suggested we make an appointment with the Speech Pathologist.
A Speech Pathologist? Yes this is what I asked myself. Why do we need a Speech Pathologist if Cecilia is too little to be speaking!! Instead of asking straight away what a Speech Pathologist was, I just waited for her to turn up, which is very wrong. If you don’t know something you must always ask. They say that ‘there is no such thing as a silly question ‘which I truly believe when you are someone’s advocate.
When the Speech Pathologist arrived I learned that not only do they assist with speech issues but also with feeding/swallowing.
Finally Cecilia had reached 1.8kgs so she was able to come of the isolate as long as her temperature didn’t drop under 36.5 ยบ.
It was really exciting being able to see her all the time without a glass between us, being able to pick her up as many times as I wanted. Even though she still had all her leads attached she looked free.
I had forgotten to mention before but since Cecilia was taken to NBS they put on her three leads (three colours: green, black and white). These were to measure her respiratory rate and also she would have a SATS probe which would measure her oxygen saturation and heart rate. These had to be on all the time. Only when she would have a bath we could remove them as long as she had been stable that day.
Back to the Speech Pathologist; as she tried to feed Cecilia she noticed that Ceci was not sealing the nipple, that her tongue was not under the nipple like it should and that she had difficulty swallowing.
She suggested that apart from trying with the breast that we should start trying with a very low flow bottle. This also meant that I had to be very patient and pray to all the Gods that eventually Cecilia was going to be able to feed by herself.
While all of this was happening Cecilia had her first Hearing Screen. This is one of the routine health checks that they do at NBS. The Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) is a program that they wish to eventually incorporate in all hospitals across Victoria.
I had given my consent way back when Cecilia was born but I wasn’t present when they did the first screening, and I say the first screening because Cecilia had to have a second one as she did not pass the first one.
I didn’t think too much about it because she could have been unsettled during the screen or had fluid (or other temporary blockage) in the ears. I wasn’t going to worry if I didn’t have too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment