Tuesday, June 22, 2010

3 months old


Lincoln will be 3 months old tomorrow! Today at the doctor's office he weighed 11 pounds and 10 ounces. Good boy! Three weeks ago he pulled out his feeding tube and when they did an x-ray to confirm placement it was NG and not ND anymore. So, our GI doctor said to go ahead and try keeping it NG to see how he does with food in his stomach again (ND is placed past the stomach into the small intestine). Thank you Lincoln!!! It was meant to be because he showed us that he is able to tolerate feeds into his stomach! YIPEE!!! (However, since then he has pulled his tube out twice. And somehow I have gotten stuck putting it back in! . . . something a mother should NEVER have to do- way to traumatizing!)

Last week we met with our feeding therapist and the GI doctor. Together we came up with a new feeding plan to begin doing bolus feeds with Linc- a HUGE step in getting this feeding tube out! He's done fantastic with it! Bolis feeding is essentially feeding him in "meals" rather than having the feeding pump going 24 hours a day. So, he takes as much as he can from the bottle, and then the rest is pumped directly into his stomach, through the tube in a short amount of time (over about a 1/2 period). He's doing really well with this and takes more and more through the bottle each day. His feeding therapist, Jenn, is an angel sent from God! Seriously. We would not be where we are today without her. She's amazing and when she listened to him swallowing last week she said he sounds fantastic! His next swallow study is scheduled for the 2nd week of July. If he is no longer aspirating then, and is taking enough volume through the bottle than we can take the feeding tube out! Trying not to get our hopes up about that but definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Right now Lincoln loves to:

look at his fish in his swing



hold his binkie in



hang out with his Daddy! He gives Daddy WAY more smiles than anyone else!