Day 8: Recalibrating milestones

One of the first things we have learned as parents of a preemie is that milestones in our lives are currently measured in milliliters, minutes and grams.  We are happy to report that Luka gained a whole 35grams (1.2oz), or four tablespoons of unsifted wholewheat flour, in weight between Sunday and Tuesday nights' weigh-in.  This puts him at 1,620g after his first series of losses that took him from 1,777g down to 1,585g.  Despite the fact that we are still at net loss as my dad pointed out, the important thing is that he has gained something, so hopefully this trend now continues.  His feeds are going well, though they are exhausting him.  He currently receives 30ml of fortified breastmilk (my expressed breastmilk with added calories, protein and calcium) every 3 hours.  The reason they fortify the milk is because apparently mothers have only a limited amount of 'pre-term milk' before it turns into 'term' milk, and the pre-term infant requires 'pre-term' milk for adequate growth and development.

The bigger feeds has Luka very satisfied, and it makes him too sleepy to breastfeed right now, which of course is disappointing to Susan since he was doing really well in the beginning when he was not fed as much as he thought he wanted - however we are assured that the first order of business is to get him fatter so that he can 'graduate' from the isolette to an open cot.  In order to do that however, he has to put on some weight, and be able to maintain his own body temperature.  The good news is that he is maintaining his temperature much better, his isolette has already been turned down from over 33C to 30.5C.

Luka's first infant massage, studies have shown the benefits
for growth and development, especially in pre-term infants

Today we also gave Luka his first infant massage.  As part of our ongoing research and reading on the matter of premature babies, we have often come across research showing the benefits of infant massage for growth and other development.  One comprehensive research study has shown that massaging a pre-term infant (even those weighing less than 1,500g) three times a day for 15minutes, increases weight gain by up to 50%.  While we are still researching the matter and will get a book on it as soon as we can find a bookstore in Darwin that sells more than BBQ and fishing books, our initial approach follows that which is outlined in Preemies: The Essential Guide to Parents of Premature Babies.  Don't worry, this is not exactly a deep-tissue massage we're talking about.  Starting off with the infant on his front with his legs tucked underneath, we apply a firm stroke from his head, over the neck and shoulders, all the way down to his tail for five minutes.  The child is then placed on his back and his limbs are 'flexed' for 10 seconds each alternating, finishing with five more minutes of stroking on the back.  The reason massage is so important, is because touch is the first sense to develop in a baby.  While the premature child cannot yet focus his eyes properly, and gets overstimulated very easily (i.e., by being held, stroked and spoken to simultaneously), touch is highly developed and the skin provides the larges surface area for targeted stimulation at this time. It is important not to 'stroke' lightly as premature babies cannot differentiate between pain and tickling.  Luka seemed to enjoy the massage yesterday, though we watch him very closely and obtained the permission from his doctors before attempting this.  They agreed that he was stable and that it certainly could not harm him.  Thanks also to my old high school friend from Pretoria, now living in Germany, for providing this research on the benefits of infant massage for preemies.

And in other news, as if an emergency evacuation was not enough excitement for our little man, it appears that there might be a cyclone looming off the coast of Darwin.  Fortunately for Luka, by the looks of it, he is currently in the only building that survived the 1974 cyclone that wiped Darwin off the map - the house we are staying in on the other hand, looks pretty new.