Out of Solitary Confinement and into General Population

Payton has been upgraded (or downgraded, depending on your point of view).

For the last several days she's been deemed well enough to join the general population of babies in the NICU.  We've been expecting the move especially since her board now shows a yellow magnet instead of a red but today was the first official day of her being out of the solitary room where they put her because she was initially so sick and sensitive.

She's been 'ok' with the move.  The nurse today said she was a bit fussy and its not sure if its due to the increase in noise/light etc or whether she's having some delayed withdrawal from the morphine that they stopped yesterday morning (the nurse said it could be either).  Personally, I think its the noise but I'm very glad she's been moved.  She's doing so well she needs to start living life outside the bubble (or square room, but you get what I mean).

Her feeding is still a challenge.  They stopped her feeds yesterday but started them again today this time doing something a bit different.  They now have a feeding tube down her nose (which goes into her intestines) and a suction tube in her mouth that goes into her stomach. 

Essentially, they're feeding her (albiet very small amounts, 1/2 cc of milk every 3 hrs) but suctioning any back up bile in her stomach to prevent her from vomitting.  So I think the amount of nutrients she's getting are about the same as if she was puking it all back up, but this way her body isn't chucking all the time.  It hopefully will help her stomach/intestines digest some milk but not get upset to vomit thus not teaching her body to have that reflux action all the time. 

Time will tell if this is a workable plan.  Here's hoping because right now Payton's feeding is what is keeping her in the hospital and is what is expected to keep her there for such a long time.