Before Zoey was born I was working on losing some weight. I know that out of some freakish change in our culture that currently the “dad bod” is in fashion but I had been carrying around that physic for a few years without having a kid. I changed my eating habits and started to use intermediate fasting to see what would happen. After two months, I lost seven pounds, not bad for still eating tacos almost every day as part of my routine.
When Zoey was born I weighed a fluffy 208 IBS and when I had been working out regularly three years before I never went over 185 IBS. I still had work to do but my priorities had changed with becoming a father. I forgot about by diet and went about visiting Zoey, going to work, tucking her in at night, going home to sleep, and repeating to whole thing for days on end. Sarah and I quickly grew exhausted and people continued to tell us “you need to make sure you are taking care of yourselves.”
I started to eat any chance I remembered or had the chance to. Intermediate fasting was no longer an option because when I tried to do it for a few days I completely forgot about eating all together, so I was eating like a hobbit with breakfast, second breakfast, twosies, lunch, snack, dinner, supper, and other snacks along the way. My body had no idea what the hell was going on. After the first month of Zoey being in the hospital I stepped on a scale and found that I had lost ten pounds. For the first time in three years I was under 200 IBSs. I do not recommend this diet to anyone and as one nurse in the NICU tells us “nobody has the NICU on their birthing plan.”
I’m lucky when it comes to some of the things I know about Zoey’s health and care. What I find odd at times is that the nurses or doctors sometimes don’t know what it in the prescriptions or treatments they order.
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When I was in high school and college I had an interest in weightlifting. It was a cross between bodybuilding and power lifting and I read all the magazines that were available on the subject. I paid special attention to the diet and nutrition, being poor I had to find cheap alternatives to the supplements that these huge men were taking. I learned that Zoey would be having a fortifier added to her breast milk to help her gain weight and I was naturally curious about the protein source and other ingredients to this mix. Nobody knew the answer. A day later the nurse contacted the milk bank and they had just switch the blend they had been using. The new mix was a casein based protein with added ingredients like Coconut oil and omega three fatty acids. This was a body builder’s dream if he was starting out as a micro-preemie infant. I asked about the old blend and learned it was a whey protein blend with such additives as high fructose corn syrup. Many babies have a problem digesting cow’s milk, the source of whey. Casein is the protein from egg whites and has many more long-term benefits than whey not to mention easier to digest over a longer period of time.
I’m lucky when it comes to some of the things I know about Zoey’s health and care. What I find odd at times is that the nurses or doctors sometimes don’t know what it in the prescriptions or treatments they order. Nobody knew what was in the new fortifier Zoey would be receiving, they only knew the treatment and procedure for what to do at the moment. It’s at times like this I remind myself that medicine is an applied science, not a science. Healthcare is always changing and people find new and better ways to do things. The hospital is made up of many people that are very good at their jobs, from the pharmacist to the nutritionist, orders are checked and double checked to make sure things will work. Doctors and nurses don’t know everything, but I know that when you have a good team of people that enjoy what they do and are proud of how they do it little girls like Zoey are able to eventually come home.
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