Monday afternoon Omi update

Today, Naomi ate a little - about 3 oz of food. Unfortunately, it was not enough to convince the doctors that she was recovering well enough without an IV. So, She is getting another IV put in now. It is 3:11pm on Monday.



Noah is home with Chad. He is in pain too - He is teething at the same time as his RSV, so Chad is doing his super-dad thing and taking care of him there.



Here is how we came to be here.

Omi~

According to one of the nurses here, only about 1 in 300 kids with RSV get hospitalized. The reasons why they get hospitalized is because of severe respiratory distress (they need Oxygen) OR because they stop eating/drinking.

Naomi was hospitalized on Wednesday because she was under distress - She went to the ER and her oxygen saturation was running at 88-90 and they put her on O2. She stayed and was off of it and maintaining good Oxygen saturation in her blood (over 92%). We went home on Thursday night.



Friday, she stopped eating all together. No breastmilk, no babyfood, nada. Her pediatritian asked us to come into their office - then sent us to the ER. They admitted her and put her on an IV to keep her fluids up. This way she can focus on getting better. Friday night, Saturday Night, then Sunday hits....



Honestly, after a couple of days, Chad and I thought we should start forcing Naomi to eat. You know how you don't feel like eating when you are sick? Our moms used to tell us to drink or eat - even though we didn't feel like it - so we could get better. That's what we thought Naomi was doing. The IV came out on its own yesterday (very common occurance with babies after a few days on IV). Each time we tried to get her to eat or drink while she was on the IV, she turned away - unless it was breastmilk. Now, the opportunity presented itself for us to cajole her into eating other stuff her own.



SO, Chad and I each took turns offering her a bottle or sippy cup (which she systematically refused), but forcing her to drink with a syringe to keep her fluids up. The nurse said it was okay to force her, to drink - so we did. The goal was 4 oz every 4-5 hours. Chad took the first shift last night, I took the second. Halfway through the 4 ounce serving the same nurse came in and said, "We don't want to Force her -force her. We want her to want to eat." Great. That's what she should have said in the first place. BTW - at this point it is 3 or 4 in the morning. Chad fed her around 11pm.



Ok, so new strategy.



I stopped pinning her arms down and feeding her liquids like they were medicine. My new strategy was to feed her a variety of foods to keep her interest and hopefully get 4 oz into her system. I succeeded with 3 oz at 2 pm. That is where this blogpost starts out for Naomi.