Alex was placed on a nasal canula last night to provide continuous oxygen while he slept - this helped reduce the number of desaturations he had throughout the night. He was started on bolus feedings, but he had a high residual from his midnight feeding (meaning that he wasn't digesting the formula) so he was placed back on continual feeds (small amounts of formula that are continually pushed through the feeding tube). His digestion started to improve in the early morning and around 8:00am DeAnn stopped by and agreed to let us try bottle feeding.
For the first feedings you need to hold your little one very firm so that they can't wiggle away. With all of the stitches and swelling in the tongue, the bottle feels weird to the touch and many babies don't like the sensation of the bottle in their mouth. Alex didn't seem to be in pain, he has been chewing on his blanket and hand since yesterday. I won't lie. For the first few feedings it feels like baby torture. Like water-boarding your infant. Alex screamed and tried to thrash around... but eventually they calm down and are so hungry that they give in and drink. DeAnn was great about explaining how to hold him and providing techniques for getting him to swallow. She provides a special kind of bottle that you squeeze to provide small amounts of formula to the back of the throat, which is great for those kiddos that don't want to (or can't figure out how to) suck using their swollen tongue. Alex resisted initially, but he drank two ounces of formula. We will be feeding him 2-3 ounces every two hours throughout the day.
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