Monday

Mia appears to be tolerating the formula mixed with breast milk, however, the doctors are concerned because she isn't gaining weight, in fact, she has lost weight over the past week. The thought is that she is expending too much energy during her feedings because of her heart issue. She tends to do really well with the first 30-40 cc's of food...she'll usually take that in about 10 minutes, but the last 20-30 cc's is a bit of a struggle and it may take her 20 minutes. And even though they've been adding extra calories to her feedings with corn oil (it looks just like the stuff you cook with)...she's still not gaining weight. So, one of the thoughts of the doctors is that she might need a g-tube. It's a tube that is fitted directly into her stomach, it is attached right at her tummy. She would be fed with a bottle whatever she can take easily and then when she is tired the rest would be put in her tummy through her g-tube. They've tentatively scheduled her to get one of these on Friday, however, if something changes between now and then and she starts to gain weight then they may not do it. In the mean time we've changed her feeding routine a bit, we are now feeding her when she is hungry and allowing her to eat what she can, but not forcing her to finish the last 20 cc's if she is tired. One of her feedings tonight she took 55 cc's in 15 minutes and so we said great, she doesn't need the rest if she is finished. And later she took 30 cc's, took a nap for a bit and then took another 30 cc's. Another concern of ours is that she has started to have some dark liquid in her stool, it is not much, but we've never seen her have output like that. The doctors are not too worried because it is minimal, but as parents we notice any change and start to think, oh no. So lots to pray for...pray that Mia has the strength to finish her feeds in a quicker amount of time, pray that she will put on weight, and pray that her stool is normal.

We also spoke with Lupita's mom tonight and she is still on bypass at this point. We asked her if the doctors gave her any idea how long it would take before she came off the machine and she said that sometimes it takes 4-5 days. Lupita has been on the machine for 2 days now, so pray for her. This is very eye opening to Brad & I because Mia will have to go through this same process in the near future.