Walker Colt Pruett: Day 48

Overnight the nurse said that Walker had a couple of self recovery episodes, but after he settled into his continuous feeds he didn’t have any more. We are really hoping this will help the lil guy’s reflux because it is hard to watch him when you can see milk in his mouth and he is really hurting from it. We are hoping that as he continues to put on weight this is something he will grow out of. The doctors say it is common in preemies and it varies from baby to baby on how long it last and how severe the symptoms are. They also slightly increased his feeds from 6.6cc per hour to 6.9cc per hour.

The doctor also said that the more of his food he can take by bottle the more it will help his reflux. They still only want Mommy to breastfeed once a day, this is because they are adding extra protein and fortifiers to the milk I pump and so it has more calories in it for him. While Mommy would love to breastfeed him exclusively, we have to give him the extra fortifiers to help he gain as much weight as he can. We got to try to bottle feed him. The nurse put 7cc of the fortified milk in a bottle with a low flow nipple and the lil guy worked on it for about 10 minutes. Walker was only able to take in about 2cc which isn't nearly as much as he takes in when breastfeed but the bottle is more work for the little guy. This is something that we will have to keep working on, and it will get easier the bigger he gets.

Walker had a pretty calm afternoon and he did well with his oxygen, he is still on 3 liters on his cannula and his oxygen was around 21-25%. He did half one self recovered episode, but when the nurse got into his bed he had done a “big job”, so maybe that’s why he was holding his breath! Walker also had a visit from his great grandparents Mamaw and Papaw Pruett today and as always they loved seeing the little guy! He is so lucky to have them in his life!

This evening Walker had two episodes about an hour apart, where the nurse had to get into his bed and give him some stimulation. We are hoping these are just related to his reflux. Please pray with us that Walker has a quiet and restful night and continues to grow and do well.

Also, thanks to all those that are doing the “Cold water challenges” for Walker we really appreciate it and enjoy watching all of them!