Rock Star

He had another good day. They tried him on a bottle just to see if he would swallow properly. The therapist said that Carter was very anxious to try it, and did OK for his first try. He drank about 1/2 cc of it. That's to be expected for his first try. He's not quite ready for the swallow study, so they're going to work with him every day for a few days to see what happens. The nurse practitioner threw the idea of a G-Tube at us today. Basically it is a gastric feeding tube inserted through a small incision in the abdomen into the stomach. It works the same way that his feeding tube through his nose, but is safer for Carter. The NP said that it's possible that he will have to come home with one until he can learn to bottle feed which is very common for babies with cleft palate. We certainly don't want Carter to have to stay in the NICU because of bottle feeding, so we're fine with this idea if it comes to that. Carter's a rock star though, so he might just shock all of them and learn the bottle quickly.

He was awake and alert again which was very nice to see. Since everyone seemed to love the other video, here are some more from today. Just so you can get an idea of how tiny he really is, the onesie is a size Newborn. The size on it reads 5-8 lbs and it's still huge on him. He's wearing his splints that help him to learn to straighten his wrists. He absolutely hates them, but they seem to working.