Early on, I asked the lactation specialist for a shield and described the struggles my older boys had nursing. We had countless people come and watch him latch and try to nurse. As adorable as his cheeks are, they made it difficult to see how strong of a latch we had. He was also using his cheeks to store the milk and he would let it dribble out the sides of his mouth instead of swallowing.
With little progress being made at the beginning of week 3, I began to toy with the idea of going back to work before he was released and taking more time when he came home. At that point it hit me that when I returned to work, Skittles would need to take a bottle and if we gave him his feeding by bottle before the tube feed, we could see exactly what he was doing when he tried to suck, swallow and breathe.
I asked his nurse, Amy, if we could get permission to try a bottle feed at his next feeding. Bottle feeding a preemie is not like feeding a full term baby. Amy showed me how to lay him on his side facing away from me so I could monitor the flow in the nipple and watch his breathing. Skittles really liked Nurse Amy; she was present at his birth and frequently checked on him when he wasn’t assigned to her.
No problems smiling now, Skittles at 3 months old. |
Grandma! My grandma is here! (Skittles @ 3 months) |
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