Getting Bigger By the Day

Since her surgery, Alaina has been fed via TPN, which is intravenous, since her intestines needed to heal. On Saturday, the doctors decided to start giving her nourishment through a feeding tube again. She started out getting .5 cc's of Pedialyte every hour and on Sunday they started her on formula and breast milk. Since she lost so much of her small intestine, the challenge is to see how much of the milk she's getting she's able to digest. Alaina will continue to get TPN until the doctors see that her small intestine is working properly and she's getting enough nutrients from the milk to sustain her so it feels a bit like we're back where we were three weeks ago hoping she'll tolerate her feeds. It's going to be long process but hopefully the small intestine she has left will be able to do its job. In the meantime, the TPN is obviously agreeing with her because Alaina now weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce. The surgeon calls TPN "steak in a bag" which is right up the alley of any child of DH's! And milk is doing Gabrielle's body good -- she was up to 2 pounds 14.5 ounces today. Her skinny little chicken legs are finally filling in!