The beloved Marie Waters

Wyatt is 6lb 10.9oz.

We got discomforting news at rounds this morning. The attending, Dr. Topel, wants to send Wyatt for a neuro consult. Apparently, Wyatt's nippling activities are of concern. My mind immediately went to brain damage and cerebral palsy. As soon as the doctors moved on I cried. Rus was kind enough to block me from the rest of the room.

Since we were supposed to meet with Dr. Topel later, I didn't ask many questions although Rus suggested that maybe Wyatt wasn't doing well because Wyatt wasn't awake when people were trying to feed him. Rus suggested that maybe Wyatt should be nippled when he is awake and not just to fit in with his feeding schedule. Dr. Topel said that was a good idea and they should have thought of it.

Francie came up to us a half an hour later asking if we still needed to meet with Dr. Topel since we had just talked to him at rounds. I am sure that was more Topel's doing than Francie's. I said yes, I wanted to talk to him more about the neurology consult.

Topel eventually wandered back. He seemed annoyed. I asked what he thought he was going to find by calling the consult. He said he doesn't know, that's why he called the consult. I asked what the expectation was for a newborn with a cleft palate in terms of bottle feeding. I didn't get an answer. I won't bore you with the details, but essentially I got no information. He did say that usually they wait until 40 weeks before doing a consult, but why wait. Unless we wanted him to . . . I said since he brought it up, I would like it done as soon as possible. We also brought up reflux again, but Dr. Topel said he wanted to persue neurology before treating reflux. At least he is open to the idea of treating reflux I guess. He got a call and he left.

Pat and Francie stayed and talked to us. My first question was who is Dr. Topel? He only showed up about a week and a half ago. In the mean time, Dr. Jennis and Dr. Ruben disappeared. Dr. Topel is the attending. He is only there every three months for about three weeks.

Pat said she was concerned about Wyatt because he seemed to sleepy and fragile. I said I had to agree. I often describe him as sensitive. Apparently, Wyatt's recent wakeful spells are a good thing. We talked about him just taking things slow and he might be developmentally slow. I kind of started to tune out that part of the conversation. Pat explained that neurology consults for babies are totally different then adults. They have consults all the time and it doesn't mean they are looking for something specific. She said she knows how I think and to just put it out of my mind.

I also suggested that maybe we haven't found the most appropriate nipple for Wyatt yet. Pat started thinking of all the nipples that had been tried and the ones we hadn't. We talked about the pidgeon nipple. Nurse Sharon suggested calling Marie Waters and having her take a look. Marie hadn't actually looked at Wyatt when she was over, but had said she would. (We also had that weird situation with the breast feeding issue and I have to admit that I was pretty hostile to Marie and didn't push for having her come over. ) Francie said she would call her and Pat was going to hold his 12:30 feed a bit to see if he woke up and was hungry. She said she wouldn't hold past 1:00 though.

As I left, I decided I was going to look up cerebral palsy when I got home. What I read was not pretty.

Around 2:00, I thought about calling Pat to see if she nippled him, but I had to pump. I decided to wait until after the pumping. As I was pumping, the phone rang. Rus was in the shower, so I stopped to answer it. You just never know when NICU is going to call. It was Pat. My heart sank at first, but she had good news. She just wanted to be the one to call and tell us that Wyatt drank 45ML with the Pidgeon nipple. Marie Waters came over and evaluated him. She said it took some doing and a half an hour, but he did it.

It was just what I needed to hear! I love Marie Waters!

I am so proud of our little guy. I was so happy I cried and ran to the bathroom to tell Rus. The first thing I said was that it was Pat, it was good news, and I was crying because I was relieved. I told him the news.

He was not surprised. He said that they just needed to give Wyatt a chance. He knew he could do it.

Later Rus called in to see how far Wyatt's feeding schedule had changed. We usually go in at 6:30, but thought it might be pushed out because of Pat's feeding. Nurse Donna Lee informed us she had fed Wyatt his full feed (60ML) by bottle at 3:30 and they were going to try again at 7:30. Again, it took some doing and a half an hour, but HE DID IT!

They also tried .5L today, but it didn't work so well. Pat said not to worry about that. He would improve. She's very proud of Wyatt.

When I left today Pat asked me if I was going to be a nurse now. I said I had certainly given it some thought ever since the fertility treatment. I said I couldn't be a NICU nurse, I would cry every day.