Hooray For 8 cc's

Emerson nippled 8cc's tonight! Oh my goodness I can't sleep because of EXTREME excitement. I was there just this afternoon and he was not interested in eating at all. He had absolutely no interest in responding to eating. He is 39 weeks on Saturday and should have both the rooting reflex and the suck, swallow and breath reflex down. The Dr.s say since he has had such a rough start the small task of eating will take a lot of work and time from both the therapist and me. Emerson tastes one drop on his tongue and immediately starts to gag and Brady (Heart rate drops and O2 Sat's drop very low). This is how he responded for the past week when anybody tried to feed him.

Tonight , David and I went to the hospital for his 9:00 feeding. I brought a special preemie slow flow nipple with Dr. Browns bottle and Emerson loved it. For the first time he clearly took a real interest in nippling from a bottle. He sucked and swallowed a few times and he and I together worked on the pace of his efforts. Swaddle, side lying , pacifier , bottle. This routine with the new bottle made all the difference and all at once Emerson became interested in eating. I was so impressed because the entire time I was there even after the nurse gavaged his feeding through the tube he was still rooting like crazy and just wasn't satisfied... He wanted MORE... Unbelievable I tell you, it is simply unbelievable.