Weight for it...

Weight seems to be a real issue for the McGarvey family right now. Chris wants to lose it, Morgan wants to lift it and Clara and Wilson need to gain it! Chris and Morgan's weight issues are easily resolved - eat less and workout. Well, in theory that is easy. Clara and Wilson on the other hand, do not have such a simple solution for their weight goals. In July, right before the car wreck, we posted about Clara and Wilson being put on a human fortified breast milk. At the time we didn't go into much detail about it but it was a REALLY big deal. So here is the story behind our first breast milk adventure. 

Most preemies are fed fortified breast milk so their growth more closely imitates the development they would experience in utero. We had no choice whether to use fortifiers for Clara and Wilson because Chris' milk is "skim milk" and is low in calories. (And no, there is nothing you can do to raise the caloric content of your breast milk - otherwise Chris would have been eating huge steaks and drinking raw eggs). However, not every fortifier is created equally. There are two ways breast milk is fortified: 1) through formula enriched with bovine protein (most common); or 2) with formula enriched with protein from human breast milk (extremely rare). If you can get it, human fortified breast milk is much better for preemies because their sensitive digestive tracts are more likely to reject anything foreign (like cow's milk).

The attending physician(an expert in nutrition for preemies) highly recommended using human fortified breast milk but cautioned that we probably couldn't get insurance to pay for it. That doctor had obviously never dealt with Chris.  

A company in California called Prolacta is the only manufacturer of human fortified breast milk. They extract proteins and calories from donated breast milk to make a super all-human fortifier. If Chris makes liquid gold, they make liquid platinum. This is an expensive process but has great results in preemies. Most importantly, studies have shown preemies that are fortified with Prolacta vs. a bovine fortifier are 70% less likely to get NEC (a horrific intestinal infection). The Texas Children's Hospital just announced they are partnering with Prolacta to launch a new donor breast milk program. Here is the article, it's a quick read. You may be wondering, how can Texas Children's Hospital afford such an expensive fortifier? The state of Texas covers the human fortifier, the state of Kentucky does not. Long story short, Chris was able to procure Prolacta milk for Clara and Wilson. To give you an idea of how rare it is for someone to get Prolacta in the NICU at Kosair, a rep from the company had to come in and show the hospital staff how to mix the milk.

But the effort was worth the time and money. Clara and Wilson each weigh over four pounds (Clara hit four pounds this weekend, lost it for a day, but is back today) in large part because they have been able to tolerate and increase their feedings. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but nothing like we have seen or heard others experiencing. The Prolacta has thus far been a true blessing.

Unfortunately, Clara and Wilson had such success that the hospital decided to stop paying its share of the Prolacta. We knew this would happen likely happen once they reached a certain weight, but are sorry to see it go. Gone are the nights when we call to check on Wilson and learn he gained 70 grams. The doctors are going to watch Clara and Wilson over the next 10 days and, if they don't gain enough weight, will fortify their milk with bovine supplements. It will be easier to use the bovine formula now because their digestive tracts are more developed, they are beginning to nurse, and the fortified formula would probably be administered only two or three times each day. Still, we're sorry to see it go.

In other news, Clara and Wilson's Uncle Dave (Morgan's older brother) deployed today to support our country's efforts in Afghanistan. Due to his crazy schedule with a new unit, Clara and Wilson weren't able to meet their Uncle and will have to wait until he returns sometime this winter. We are incredibly proud of David and wish him a safe tour of duty. We can't wait for him to someday thrill the kids with war stories from overseas.  

It's a few days old but we finally uploaded the pics
of Morgan'sMom holding Clara