Eating

You never really think about how integral eating is as part of our society. We go out to dinner to socialize, celebrate, do business, relax... Even at home, eating is usually a big deal. Families gather at a table for dinner to reconnect. Holidays are spent around the kitchen and the table. 

Our speech therapist in the hospital started talking to us about how we were going to have to include Nicholas in these traditions even if he wasn't eating by mouth. He should sit at the table (when he was strong enough obviously) and take his feed even if it weren't by mouth. We should try to hold him while he got his feeding because you hold babies when they eat.

When Nicholas got the all clear from the surgeon to start eating again, they started him very slowly on the tube. He was getting approximately 20 ml of milk over an hour. They just weren't sure how he would tolerate it. In order to start the clock on discharge, he had to be back at what he had been eating via NG tube before the surgery. He had been at 60 ml over an hour, so we had some work. 

He took every feed like a champ and each time they fed him, they increased the amount. By Saturday (surgery had been Thursday), he was back at full feeds. The NICU drew up a feeding schedule for us and the nurses started to hint at discharge talks. We tried very hard to not get our hopes up. As everyone who has ever had a child in the NICU, talks can change fast. 

Saturday, Nicholas had a Brady. It wasn't a true Brady in the sense that something was physically wrong that he stopped breathing, it was actually just that he was positioned wrong and his airway was cut off (did I mention he had a REALLY big head?) but it started our discharge clock over. He had to be Brady free for five days in order to be discharged. We tried not to be too disappointed. He had been a rock star to this point. We knew there would be setbacks.