Out Stubborned

Let me start out with a Jack update: his new born rash looked worse, so they ran some blood work and a fungal culture to make sure it was, indeed, new born rash and not something else that he was trying to fight off. The blood work came back negative for any heightened weight blood cell count and the culture came back negative as well. Some of the nurses looked at the rash and said it’s new born rash as soon as they looked, other nurses said it’s not new born rash at all. Either way, it’s being treated with a topical cream that dries up the rash, but also dries out Jack’s poor face.  I hope he’s feeling better tomorrow, so he can be picture of the day again!

Now to Harper’s story, and the namesake for today’s entry: Both Harper and Jack are trying to learn to take bottles (Jack finished a bottle at 8 am, by the way- woo hoo). Because Harper was up and moving at 11, the nurse wanted me to try a bottle with her; Harper would have none of it. She would look at the bottle, look at me, and certainly stare at anything interesting in the room, but would not drink the bottle at all- not even one ml. The occupational therapist witnessed my attempt and used some of her own tricks to try and get Harper to latch onto her bottle and drink. Harper liked looking at and listening to the therapist, but still wouldn’t take her bottle. The therapist talked about Harper being timid, and suggested some music therapy. She was saying the music might provide Harper with a routine and some stability and predictability around each feeding time; I told her I thought it was worth a shot.  At 2 pm, Harper was awake and acting hungry, so I again tried to feed her a bottle- no dice. I remembered what the therapist said and then tried to just sit and talk with Harper to make the eating experience less intimidating. While I was talking to Harper, I snuggled her close to my body and she started rubbing her face against me- that was odd- she did it again two more times. I finally told her nurse, “I think she wants to breastfeed”- the nurse seemed skeptical, but told me to try anyway. Miss Stubborn of the day, Harper Marie, immediately latched on and proceeded to nurse for 20 min.- about 10 min longer than normal. The nurse came in and was surprised to see Harper still eating; using Harper’s feeding tube and a syringe, the nurse checked to see if Harper was actually getting any milk- yep- her stomach was filling up and she seemed very happy. 

Harper knew she didn’t want a bottle and that little girl just waited us all out- for two hours! I worry that this cute little girl is going to give her Momma a run for her money; when she knows what she wants, she’s a holdout until she gets it. What am I supposed to do with a preemie that is even more stubborn than I am?