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Friday, June 17, 2011

June 17, 2011 - Day #13


Today was a good day. My best friend, Mina and I visited with Riker together and she was very much like she normally was. She's a whole pound lighter and feels like my baby when I hold her except for all the tubes and wires that hang off her body. She fussed and cried a lot but it was her normal complaining that I've grown so accustomed to over the last 4 months.
Because of the puking yesterday, I found out that they had not fed her anything through her NG tube since the last time she threw up. They had switched to giving here nutrition through IV which sounded like a set back to me. They did, however, let me breastfeed. Riker was so excited to feed and made the familiar content moaning as she ate just like both my girls did when they fed. Just like yesterday, she kept the breastmilk down when I fed her directly.
As I was getting ready to leave, the nurse indicated that she would be letting the doctors know that they shouldn't fortify her breastmilk because it doesn't agree with her. I asked her what she meant by "fortify." This is when I found out THEY HAVE BEEN MIXING HER BREASTMILK WITH FORMULA!!! I am livid. The doctors have been sharing all the details of her treatment but no one bothered to share or ask me about this. Apparently, they were doing this so that she'd get the calories she needs.
Breastmilk has comparable calories to formula and this was unnessary stress on my little girl. Perhaps my baby wouldn't have been puking and struggling so much yesterday if they hadn't done this. Surely she's not getting the calories she needs if she's puking up her meals! Clearly the breastmilk agrees with her much better.
I have been pumping like crazy every 2 hours at home, taking supplements and drinking teas to keep my supply up for her. The hospital currently has 80 ounces of my milk on hand. The is simply no excuse for this and I feel as though they kept it from me.
I feel betrayed!
The picture above is what my daughter looks with a full belly of gentle mother's milk that she can digest and keep down. They damn well better not make such a decision without consulting me again! The doctors are going to get a piece of my mind tomorrow.

5 comments:

  1. I completely Agree! There is No better nutrition for Any Baby ESPECIALLY Yours than their MOTHERS MILK<3 There was NO arguable possible benefit for suplimenting her food with Fake! You give them HELL! and give them some more from me^j^

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  2. That's one cute baby. Look at her lovely smile! :) It's hard to just say this, as I can't imagine how hard it is for you, but stay strong! I hope everything turns out ok. In a few years this will be just memories. Make sure you keep all the good ones!

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  3. Its so nice to see you both smiling. We are all praying for you. Katie, colby, brycen :)

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  4. Just found your blog and will be praying for you! It is very stressful when they do things like that, I totally understand as my babe has had a lot of different medical issues in the last five months. She is 7 months old now and still 9.5 pounds...so we've been through the deal with adding formula to my milk too. It doesn't agree with her either and they've tried 7 different kinds to no avail trying to get her to gain some weight. I will tell you that the reason they usually add formula to bump the calories up in your breastmilk from 20ish to 24 or 27 calories (after they add formula) an ounce is because the baby isn't taking in enough to add up to the calories they need to gain/maintain weight, but I totally agree and understand about the throwing it up and therefore not getting anything part. It's not acceptable that the nurses/docs didn't tell you about it before they started her on the mix though, so they do deserve a piece of your mind for sure. I will keep following your story and praying for you guys, I know it's hard on her as well as your whole family to have to go through something like this....

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  5. What a beautiful smile.

    I just stumbled upon your blog and had to share that my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

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