Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ice Cream, Vodka and...Breast Milk




The following words were actually uttered to us today:

"If he keeps this up, you guys could be home by the end of the week."

Dylan, please keep this up.

And by "this," I mean eating 45 cc's. After 24 hours straight of 40 cc intakes, he was raised to the next (possibly final) threshold. The PICC line in his head (much less invasive than it looked) was removed early this morning, and he's only on a 2 mL/hr TPN drip (it started out at more than 12 mL/hr). Even this is likely to be dropped completely tomorrow.

I'm really beginning to think in terms of heading home, now. So in the saga that is my breast milk production, we've been researching how to get my product back to California. Currently, I produce significantly more milk than Dylan consumes - roughly 600 cc's pumped daily, only 360 of which he is now fed. Bear in mind that his consumption is up significantly over the past couple of weeks, and I am a supply side economist's dream. In the meantime, I've been storing my vast quantities of milk in the NICU freezer, and God only knows how much is there - but suffice it to say - A LOT. So it looks like I'll be Fed-Ex'ing the harvest home on dry ice in multiple coolers, since breast milk keeps for basically an eternity and can be used for future feedings when my boob is not available (not that he has quite taken to that yet - baby steps). Where we're going to store all of this when we get home, I don't know. The lactation consultant seems to think that a deep freezer will do the trick - because you know, San Francisco homes are so spacious as to accommodate such a thing. I mean, we'll just toss the giant meat container in our garage...or shed...or...oh, wait...we don't have any of these things. Oh well, looks like the milk will have to find a home next to the ice cream and vodka in our freezer drawer.

Keeping the promise we made to ourselves Friday night, we hit up Chili's tonight for dinner (last night we were at a friend's house for football, featuring lasagna and other assorted delights - thank you!). Tell me, when did the serving sizes at Chili's get bigger? I'm not sure when I was there last, but I immediately recognized the increased plate size - not to mention, Brad's dish featured what had to be an entire can of black beans (lucky me). The dessert - Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie - had also doubled in size, up from a square to a rectangle (and apparently packing more calories than a rack of the chain's baby back ribs). Even the 600 calories I'm burning each day from pumping can't save me from this gluttony. At least I'm moving about normally now so I can burn those extra 50 calories walking to and from the hospital each day.

Still on the agenda before this journey ends - a mani/pedi/eyebrow wax in Broward County. Recommendations welcome.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Kiesha: The Sera-Tacordas and subsequently your blog have kept me up to speed on your Florida saga. Unreal. In any case I just wanted to send my congratulations to you and Brad on Dylan's arrival and all of my best wishes for you guys to get home safely and soon! The wit and humor that you bring to your blog during all of this is such a breath of fresh air. Let me know if you need any of our freezer space out here in the avenues :o) xoxo

Unknown said...

Don't you just love Chili's?? I am always up for a visit- never let's me down. Hurry home!

Unknown said...

Wondering how one becomes a lactation consultant.