Today was a good, albeit tiny step in the right direction towards getting discharged. Up to this point, Kohl has been fed through an OG/NG tube that runs from either his nose or mouth to his stomach. At first, he was just on IV fluids, lipids, and a really healthy supplement called TPN. But they have gradually introduced the breast milk that his mom diligently pumps out every two hours with assembly-line-like efficiency. Now he gets all of his nutrition from breast milk.
He has done a good job of sucking on his pacifier since he has been more alert, and the speech pathologist was confident he would do well with both sucking and swallowing. They are taking a cautious approach because if he aspirated when trying to swallow the breast milk, that would set us back pretty significantly.
Yet young Kohl had a nice start today. He managed to get 7 CCs of breast milk from the bottle. For perspective, he gets 70 CCs per feeding, so he still has a way to go, but he’s moving in the right direction.
Because pictures and videos speak louder than words, here are some random pictures and videos over the last couple of weeks.
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| Kohl gets a visit from his dad’s friend Matt. Because of Matt’s reddish hair, bearded face, and large frame, Kohl most likely thought he was getting a visit from a rather large Leprechaun. And that’s pretty cool. |
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| These are Mom’s first moments with Kohl. One of the most tragic parts of the circumstances surrounding his birth is that Mom did not really get to see, much less hold, her baby boy. The good folks at Touro were very accomodating though and wheeled Sarah, who was still recovering from her C-section, down to see her son for a few minutes before the transport to Children’s Hospital. For those that have not had kids before, the first few moments that a mother spends with her child are truly beautiful. This is an image that will remain with Dad forever. |
