September 21st, 2006. Here's some new pictures of Beau. He's right out of the bath, then trying to eat his fingers, and finally sitting up like a big boy in my boppy! Beau's swallow study went beautifully today!!! He did it he really did it! Now he's taking thickened feeds from a Dr Brown's bottle. They add "Thicken Up" to my breast milk to make it easier to swallow. He is allowed to bottle feed one ounce per feed for no more than 5-10 minutes per feed and then work him up from there. It's a lot of work to drink thickened feeds and they don't want him to get too tired out. So far today he's drank from a bottle three times. Once for the study which was a huge success, once during his 5 pm feed and once during his 9 pm feed. He did great during the test and the 5 pm, but then desat'ed for his 9 pm. His nurse thinks it was because he was a little tired and will try him again at his next feed.

In order to take him home he needs to bottle feed all of his meals. Currently he's 40-60 bottling. I'm hoping he'll keep making progress. I worry about him so much. It's heartbreaking to leave him behind day in and day out. Right now he's taking 74 mL or 2 1/2 ounces per feed 6 times a day. He's a monster at 7 pounds and 19 inches long! When we were in the waiting room waiting for his swallow study reports this woman asked me how old he was. When I replied he was 3 months she gave me a funny look and said, "He's small for 3 months." I honestly couldn't believe it. And of course I had to go into the whole thing of he's a preemie etc. I felt like saying, "Look lady, he's big for his people!" hehehe

Take care everyone and thank you for the prayers and good thoughts. Please keep them coming!