Tuesday, July 12, 2011
First Bottle
Today the doctors finally ordered that Veronica give feeding by mouth a try. For most babies, 34 weeks gestational age is generally when they are able to coordinate the actions of sucking and swallowing with their breathing. Veronica is 36 weeks and was more than ready to give it a try. She was taken off CPAP and she did beautifully. Initially it seemed like she wasn't sure what to do, but eventually she guzzled all 15 ml of her milk. Veronica's nurse said it was a great sign that she did it so well. That should hopefully mean she'll get the feeding thing down pretty quickly, which would be one less thing keeping her in the NICU. We still need her to get off of CPAP though. But last night after I left, she did almost two more hours trialing off. So she was off of CPAP for a total of two and a half hours!! Go, Veronica, go!!
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Yay!!!!! Congratulations, Veronica!
ReplyDeleteThat is so amazing! It was so hard to get the twins to learn to drink from a bottle. Woo-hoo, Veronica!
ReplyDeleteTerrific! Does that mean they took out the feeding tube and all her milk will be delivered via her mouth from now on? And do they use the bottle rather than let her try to nurse merely so they can measure the amount?
ReplyDeleteThat's so great! We were never able to take 15mL, she just got way too tired. Veronica's lungs must be getting so strong if she can feed orally now. Go Veronica go, indeed!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Beryl - the transition to oral feeding is slow so it will probably be a few weeks before she is taking full feeds by mouth. The tube stays in for now. Once she is off the CPAP, they will put the tube through her nose instead. Breastfeeding is more challenging so they like to start off with the bottle first. And they are certainly concerned about weight gain and I think preemies tend to gain more when they are bottle fed.
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