Nipple Trial

On Thursday, we were told that Austin was ready for a nipple trial. Up to this point, he has been receiving his feedings through a gavage, which is a tiny tube that is inserted in his mouth and goes all the way down to his stomach. Right now, he is getting 35cc over 60 minutes for gavage feedings. The nipple trial is his first bottle feeding to see how he would do with it. During his trial, he finished 30 of the 35cc within 30 minutes, which everyone said was really good.

At first, he starts off strong...




Then, not so much...



Now that his nipple trial is over and he did well, the doctor ordered bottle feedings twice per day. So we are doing one at 9am and the other at 6pm. They also moved his gavage tube from his mouth to his nose, so that he can get the suction needed on the nipple. We have never seen such a tuckered out little boy, he is absolutely exhausted after his bottle feedings. The occupational therapist told us to go home and suck on a bottle so we can see how much work it is, but we'll just take her word for it.

The occupational therapist also showed us some infant massage techniques. We mainly focused on the ones that helped relieve gas and encourage bowel movement because Austin has been full of it!! After the therapist was done, mommy changed his diaper and let's just say it worked because he had the fullest diaper we have ever seen!

Daddy's first hold...