Sunday, March 13, 2011

First feeding without the NG tube.

Before you get too excited, there are extenuating circumstances involving Caleb finishing a bottle without his NG tube, but it has happened. I had to snap a picture before I put it back in.

Caleb had his cardiology appointment last Wednesday. We weighed 13 pounds, 7 ounces (0.4 percentile) and was 26 1/4 inches long (25th percentile). His oxygen saturation was between 79% and 84%. His blood pressure was 80/56 and his heart rate was 135. The cardiologist was very happy with how he is doing. Both the nurse and the doctor commented how good his color is with an 80% oxygen saturation.

Caleb has been making more progress with the bottle. Now it is rare that he takes less than 20 mL by bottle at a feeding and 50 mL is not uncommon.

As I mentioned earlier, Caleb did finish one bottle. After the cardiologist, I had to take him with me to the accountant. While there, I accidently pulled out his feeding tube. It got stuck on the chair and when I stood up, I pulled it right out. It was time for his feeding when I left, so I fed him what he would take from the bottle (30 mL). When we got back to work, I figured I would try again before putting in the tube and he ate another 45 mL. This left 15 mL. I decided that I wasn't going to put the tube in for that little amount. About 15 minutes later, I tried him again and he finished the bottle. It took 2 hours and three tries, but he did it!