Olivia fed Jack his THIRD bottle of the day
Jack’s a whole three pounds now! Each day God never fails to amaze us.
Jack continues to develop and grow, surprising everyone. The nurses changed his bed last week. Now the isolet maintains a constant temperature. The old one tracked his body temperature and added humidity. So Jack now regulates his own temperature, and, for the first time, he’s wearing clothes to help him keep his temperature up. He’s even cuter in clothes! 🙂
Jack sleeps most of the day, like any newborn, but is now waking and alert a quarter to half an hour before his feeding times every three hours. He’s also rooting (baby reflex to turn head to side and open mouth looking for something to suck on) and likes taking his pacifier. These cues showed he’s ready to bottle feed and/or breastfeed; so the nurses have started offering his breastmilk feedings in a little bottle. He’s doing great with it, drinking his whole feeding from the bottle, much to his nurses and doctors surprise. Usually drinking from the bottle is a big step for preemies because of the skill involved alternating sucking, swallowing and breathing plus the physical exertion of sucking.
Any milk he doesn’t finish from the bottle is given through his feeding tube so he’s still getting his prescribed 26mls every three hours. Saturday the doctor surprised us with the news he could start “practicing” breast feeding in what they call a non nutritive feeding. His first time breastfeeding he latched on and ate for five minutes before falling asleep, we were so proud of him! Though since then, he hasn’t been able to latch on and quickly becomes frustrated and angry. We hope he can master breastfeeding so that when he’s out of the hospital I don’t have to keep pumping breastmilk for bottles!
Grammy and Grandpa are here to visit from Texas and arrived on Grandpa’s birthday to a wide eyed alert Jack; what a precious birthday gift!
Yesterday big sister Olivia got to hold Jack AND feed him his bottle. He amused Olivia and me the whole time with his grunting and passing gas throughout his feeding that reminds me of big brother Isaiah as a baby -must be a boy thing! 🙂