A Small Step Backwards

As much as we prepared for a misstep, I guess you can never be fully ready when it happens. After 3 days without a feeding tube and eating only by bottle, Courtney ran into a little trouble on Sunday. They tried feeding her a couple of times without success before deciding that the feeding tube had to go back in. I suppose that's better than the alternative of her choking on her formula.

Today she went in for a test to figure out why she was experiencing d-sats (a drop in oxygen levels) and bradycardias (drop in heart rate) while she was eating. The first thought was that she might just be tired after all of that bottle feeding. The less attractive possibility was that she was aspirating. Basically, she needs to figure out how to eat and breathe, just not at the same time. Then she'd end up with stuff in her lungs, and that's just not good.

She was given a feeding this morning with a delicious barium additive (Yummy!). Then they take pretty pictures to make sure the food is going down the right pipe. The good news is that it was. The conclusion is that her feeding reflexes are just developing a little slow. Just something to keep an eye on, so not a huge deal. It might just take a little longer to get her home.

She's still gaining weight, however. She's up to 4 lbs, 11 ounces. So all in all, things are good. She just needs to act her age, which I suppose is -1 months old.