By George, I think We've Got It!

I think we may have found a schedule that works. The girls are responding very well to the two hour feeding schedule. We started last Friday trying to get them to eat 30mls (1 ounce) each feeding. We are now up to 40mls each feeding with a minimum of 35ml. Natalie and Abigail are doing great! They take 40mls almost every time and usually no less than 35mls. We feed from 6am to 12 midnight (10 feeds) so they are consistently getting 350-400mls a day.

This is tremendous progress, especially for Abigail. She had been tube-free for 10 days! This is a new record. She has never been able to take so much by mouth for so long. Natalie has had 400+ml days in the past but not consistently. We are so proud of them!

As strange as it sounds, the new schedule is actually easier on Ben and I. It is no where near as stressful as before when we were trying to fight them to take 50-60mls or more and failing miserably. It still takes about an hour to feed them both (1 person), but at the end of the hour we have success, and it feels so good. We also get more sleep. At least I do. I think Ben is about the same. I am able to go to sleep between 1am and 2am and can sleep until 9:45am. Ben is doing the 6am and the 8am which helps me tremendously. Even though I went to bed after 3 am this morning, I awoke bright eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to hug the day!

The one downfall to the schedule is that is it pretty hard to get anything done. Since it takes an hour to feed both girls, I only have an hour between the end of one feed and the beginning of the next. Right now those hours will alternate between pumping (which takes AT LEAST 30 minutes) and playing with the girls. If I can work it right, they will nap the hours I pump. Then they nap between every other feed and we play and exercise every other feed.

I, for one, am feeling really good about our prognosis right now. I feel very confident that we will be able to avoid the g-tube for Abby. As long as they continue to gain weight, we should be fine. We will just continue to try to get them to take an additional 5mls every few days. If they reach a point where they can take 50mls we may try moving to a 2.5 hour schedule and increase the amounts more. Then we can hopefully move back to a 3 hour schedule in the future .

Thanks for all the feeding prayers. It's still a struggle, but we are making progress and we are feeling happier!