Cub 2 Update

Cub 2 was born in September 2009. We were so glad that our last little one was finally here. (No one was happier than Mom aka. Zookeeper 2).

We were quite surprised when Cub 2 had a little bit of trouble nursing after he was born. Okay, actually a lot of trouble since he didn’t nurse at all. Zookeeper 2 had nursed all 5 big brothers for a year each and just figured Cub 2 would figure it out soon. 16 hours after birth he still had not nursed successfully, so we decided to give him a bottle, however, he had almost no success with the bottle either. It took him half an hour to drink half an ounce.

That night while Zookeeper 2 was sleeping, a very smart and very concerned nurse got very determined and started looking in Cub 2’s mouth. She thought she saw a cleft palate but had to wait for the next nurse to come on duty to help hold his mouth open and shine a light in at the same time. Ta-dah. They saw it! When the pediatrician on call came to check on him that morning they told her about their discovery.

When Cub 2 was about 30 hours old the nurses provide Mom with The Haberman feeder

and she was finally able to hold her baby in her arms and feed him for the first time. He looked at her with a look that said “Thank you Mom. There is something good about life after all.”

The day Cub 2 came home from the hospital he had an appointment with our family pediatrician. He was concerned with how little Cut 2 was eating and started monitoring his weight. He also referred us to the closest children’s hospital and gave us the contact information for the ENT.

We met with the ENT when Cub 2 was 15 days old. He was informative and helpful. He was concerned that it was taking Cub 2 so long to eat. It took him 1-1 ½ hours to eat 1-2 oz. of formula. He set up an appointment with a feeding specialist. He was concerned that Cub 2’s lower jaw is quite small. He listed several different things that this could be a sign of. He said that he wanted us to meet with an Ophthalmologist and a Geneticist.

We met with the feeding specialist two days later. She suggested that we switch to a Pigeon Nipple. She also suggested that we feed him for only half an hour, every two hours.

We tried the Pigeon Nipple for two days, but found many frustrations with this nipple. First of all it created a lot of fatigue in our hands. Second of all it leaks really bad, the nipple collapses a lot and the care and usage of the nipple are a lot more complicated than the Haberman Feeder. In the end, we went back to the Haberman, but continued the new feeding schedule of eating for ½ an hour ever 2 hours. The new feeding schedule became the miracle that made things better. Over time he started eating more and more during his half hour. They explained to us that he was burning too many calories when he took so long to eat. This left him too tired to eat, which made him doze off when he was supposed to be eating, which made his feedings take longer. When we held his feedings to half an hour, he wasn’t burning so many calories eating, so that he had more energy to eat at the next feeding, making it so that he could eat more! Now (Nov. 1, 2009) he is drinking 4 oz. in 20-30 minutes every 2-4 hours!

In October he had his appointment with the Ophthalmologist. The Ophthalmologist was able to determine that he has no problems with his eye sight at this time and he does not have Stickler’s Syndrome.

Later in October he had his appointment with Genetics. We found out that he does have Robin Anomaly or Pierre Robin Sequence (pronounced “Roban”). The Genetics Doctor now wants us to meet with a Cardiologist. The Geneticists also said something about Chromosome 22 and they are testing Cub 2 for that. We should get the result for that back in a couple of weeks.