Two Bottles!

Post date: Dec 30, 2010 2:17:11 AM

December 29 (PM) -

Thank you for praying yesterday about Grady Jeremiah learning to bottle feed. He was able to take two of his feeds today completely by bottle! For his 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. feeds, he drank all 36 cc of each feed from the bottle. It was so encouraging to see him do so and to see him be able to suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time. We, along with his nurses, are so pleased that he is learning it so quickly. Here are two pictures of Julia feeding him for his afternoon meal...

Please pray that he will continue to learn how to feed (and keep breathing!). His afternoon feed took Julia's patience, and the nurse and I cheering him on, to keep him going with the feed, but he did it. Bottle feeding is tiring for premature babies, so the plan right now is to feed him by bottle twice a day until he gets more comfortable with it.

In other news, the nurse practitioner told us today that Grady Jeremiah is not far away from moving from his isolette into a crib! His weight, breathing, and bottle feeding ability are all at a level to where he could move. The only hindrance right now is his body temperature. The isolette is connected to a temperature probe on him, and adjusts the air temperature to keep him warm enough. This enables him to use his calories to grow instead of trying to keep himself warm. He needs to maintain his body temperature a little better before moving. Once the air temperature in the isolette is able to drop 2-3 degrees Celsius from where it is now and stay at that level for a day, he can move up to a crib. Please pray that Grady Jeremiah's little body will be able to maintain his proper body temperature on his own.

It has been an encouraging day for us. Thank you for praying!