Eat, Child!

On her first day with no feeding assistance (yesterday) Ingrid did not perform as we had hoped. However, today she ate like a champ! Her doctor decided to let Ingrid eat when she was hungry instead of on a rigid 3 hour schedule. She managed about 30mL mid-morning and a whopping 45mL in the early afternoon!!

We also worked on fitting Ingrid into a car seat. Unfortunately, she does not fit into the seat that Daddy bought yesterday - her omphalocele is right where the buckles need to be and we cannot take the chance of damaging her O. Luckily, Rainbow Injury Prevention loaned us a car bed. The car bed is like a plastic bassinet with a seat belt to restrain her. Supposedly it will fit in the backseat right next to Anna's seat.

Ingrid had another visit from Dr. Barksdale (her surgeon). He was impressed with how great her O looks. We are going to stop using the bacitracin ointment and we are going to leave her O uncovered for a few hours a day. This should speed up the drying out and toughening which, in turn, will speed up the healing.

We seem to be continuously moving in the right direction. Ingrid's doctor told us how far ahead she is, that other babies she has treated were in the hospital for many months, but Ingrid is getting herself ready to go home. When she is gaining weight we can go.

The refrain, over and over again, is: eat!