Day 12: Growth Spurt

  Quinlan's mom and dad had a team meeting today with the attending, resident, NP and RN. The team gave a good overview of what Quinlan ha accomplished so far and discussed the road map for the journey forward.
  Currently the plan is to continue to gain weight, to up his calories with increasing body mass, and to begin to introduce him to breast feeding by gradually increasing time suckling trying to achieve 10-15 minutes of continuous suckling with good latching prior to attempting to feed solely from the breast. This usually happens gradually and we have to follow Quinlan's lead.
  Earlier this AM, Quinlan latched with mom and was able to suckle for 1/2 minute prior to getting tuckered out. He did this on and off for about 10 minutes. He also began rooting on dad and was surprised to find no breast. That is OK, as he was able to work on his suckling skills using he new green binky. The green is an upgrade from the purple, is bigger in size, and more similar to mom's nipple size. Dad was able to hold it up for him and Quinlan was very enthusiastic about his sucking on it.

  At the  evening weigh in, Quinlan was up 3 oz and was bumped up to a larger feeding dose of mom's milk: 36 mL up from 34 mL. We hope this helps Quinlan continue to grow, while we try some more non-nutritive suckling over the weekend. Current weight is 4 lb, 8 oz. Up 4 oz from his birth weight! Grow Quinlan, grow!