Sunday, September 25, 2011
Bottle Time
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Aleli has started to learn to drink from a bottle. Previously to this, she received all her food (milk plus supplement) through a feeding tube that went through her mouth into her stomach. However, she is now at 33 weeks gestational age, and at this age babies learn the "sucking" reflex. In the womb, she would be sucking on her fingers, toes, knees, or anything she could get in her mouth. In the "outside" world, she is learning to suck on a pacifier.
It's been amazing to see the change in Aleli. Last week, we would put the pacifier in her mouth, she would maybe hold it there for a few seconds, and then it would fall out. This week, she goes to town! The nurses see this as a "cue" that she is ready to try bottle feeding. So on Friday morning at 11am, Aleli tried her first bottle with her nurse. We got to the hospital just as she was finishing up, but she did really well for a first try! She took about 10 milliliters, or about a third of her normal feeding amount. I fed her at 2pm, and Kel fed her at 5pm (see the pictures below), and each time she took between 5-10mls.
Feeding through a bottle is really tough for a preemie! Aleli has to think about sucking on the bottle, then think about swallowing the milk she gets, all the while remembering to breathe. At one point while I was feeding her, she stopped breathing and turned purple really fast! It was scary for a moment, but the nurse was near by, picked her up quickly, rubbed her back, and she started breathing again. Apparently this is common for preemies as they learn to bottle feed. The coordination of suck/swallow/breathe is difficult, and sometimes they get stuck.
So we try to encourage her to bottle feed, and whatever she doesn't get through the bottle is given to her through her feeding tube. Her feeding tube is now going through her nose to allow her to get her mouth around a bottle. However, the tube in her nose really annoys her! She sneezes a lot, and when she breathes the tube goes in and out a bit. She also grabs on the tube and pulls a bit. In fact, yesterday she pulled the tube right out!
However, this allowed her the chance to take a bottle without her tube in the way, and she did amazingly well! She took almost the entire 1 oz. by bottle, which is really great for only her second day. Later in the night, she only took about 10mls, so they had to put the feeding tube back in, but we are encouraged because she showed us that she can take a full bottle, we just have to continue to give her time.
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3 comments:
Thanks for sharing these precious moments with us. So happy to see that Aleli keeps reaching new milestones.
I love the pictures also, Jesse! Keep them coming! It makes it easier to see her growing up through the pictures when she, Kellye, and you are so far away.
Precious! Little dear makes the pacifier look so huge! Happy to hear she's doing so well. :)
Teresa
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