11 days old

Well today was another uneventful day, which is a good thing! Ethan's heart rate, oxygen saturation in his blood, and blood pressure were all back to normal today. His nurse resumed feeding him through the NG tube that goes directly to his stomach from his nose. A speech therapist came at 2:30 PM to evaluate his sucking and swallowing reflexes. They looked good, but he still has a lot of work to do to catch on to the idea of sucking when he has a bottle in his mouth. His therapist said this is normal for newborns who have just had surgery to have difficulty picking up on the sucking motion (rooting reflex) and she'll work with him slowly each day. She said she wants it to be a positive experience for him so that he will want to do it on his own eventually. He's supposed to be getting a 2oz. bottle every 3 hours so we'll start with the bottle feeding and after about 15 minutes, whatever he has not yet drank by mouth, they'll feed the rest to him through his NG tube.