Family Time

Ali and I headed up to the hospital after track practice this morning. We took turns snuggling with Brady before the OT showed up.

At 11:30 Brady went through therapy with Holly. She was very impressed with his muscle tone. His upper body and lower body are improving. He hasn't shown any ankle clonus for several days. Brady once again displayed tremendous strength during tummy time. Holly also did several exercises to wake him up before feeding time.

At noon it was my turn to try to feed Brady with a bottle for the first time. Holly gave me several tips while Brady was feeding. I sat Brady on my left leg and held his head and jaw upright with my left hand. Because of Brady's reflux, it is best to start feeding him from that position. I held the bottle like a pencil in my right hand. I learned to angle the bottle down to put pressure on his tongue. When he stopped eating, I used my fingers to support his chin and pressed in his cheeks to create better suction. I also pulled the bottle out a little to get him to suck it back in and continue eating.

After a while he started pulling away and arching his back. This was a sign that he was getting some reflux. I then tilted his head down to my knee and held him sideways on my left forearm. Since the stomach is shaped like a "C", this prevents the reflux from moving up.

I tried every trick in the book for that next half hour. I would sit him up, tip him down, squeeze the checks, lift the chin, press the tongue, pull the bottle out, burp him, and repeat. I was pretty proud of myself until I found out all of that work had resulted in 28 ml. I had a new appreciation of what Ali has been doing every day and what our nurses are doing every night.

Just to throw a little salt in the wound, Ali fed him 43 ml at 3 p.m. We also learned he had 55 ml at 6 p.m. yesterday, 55 ml at 9 p.m., 50 ml at midnight, 15 ml at 9 a.m. I guess it's back to the drawing board for me. I'm going to do some visualization and some practicing during my free time and I'll be back tomorrow to improve on my total. :)

My mom brought Ava and Casey up to the hospital for about an hour in the afternoon. Ava read Brady a couple of books. She also enjoyed some snuggle time with him. We can't wait for the time when Casey can finally meet his little brother and take our first photo with our family together.

We brought Ava to a sleepover birthday party tonight. Ali, Casey and I went out to eat and saw the movie The Lorax (and Casey ate half a bag of cotton candy). It was great finish to wonderful day with our family. We're hoping that tomorrow is much of the same.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady