A baby of three weeks, weighing only 780 gram!!!

This afternoon a young lady came with her baby, she asked for help. I looked at the baby and I was so shocked!!! I even almost cried when I saw those big eyes in this little tiny face. So small, so skinny, the baby was 3 weeks old. I took the baby and asked the mother to wait. Meri and I weighed the baby, only 780 gram!! The mother told us that the baby was a 6 months premature baby and at birth he had weighed 1 kg. He almost lost 25% of his birth weight. he was a bit cold and dehydrated, we took him directly to the doctor next door (what a blessing to have the doctor next door!!) The baby was put on IV drip, extra dextrose IV and to be given a NG tube. So Meri and I went back and went to work.

I am so glad that Meri is back and we got everything organised and done, the NG tube went in very smoothly. I think this is the smallest baby I have ever worked with. Everything is so small and tiny.

We felt that this baby should be in the incubator. he is the oldest of the three premature baby's, but his weight is half from that of the two girls. So we took Evalyn out of the incubator and she lays now together with Eunice in a kind of tent. Also in our medical room, away from the other children and protected from the mosquito's. Evalyn and Eunice are now looking BIG, compared with this little boy, Jesse. The two girls are weighing now almost 1.8 kg. each, they do well.

And so got Jesse the incubator, he will be fed every two hours, like the other two baby's. It is a lot of work, three small baby's on NG tube feeding. But what a joy will it bring when they will be gaining and be able to drink themselves!
The mother of Jesse is very young and alone, she didn't know what to do, it was her first baby, she is happy that we came in to help and will take over again when the baby is stronger and stable.