Gavin's First Time Drinking from a Bottle

Today's visit started off rough but ended up great. When we got to the hospital we checked Gavin's temperature and it was 98.0. The nurse said that he had to be at 98.6 for us to hold him. I thought for the third time in a row that we weren't going to be able to hold him. She said that we could check his temp. again at 5pm and see what it is. So we did and it was 98.4 degrees so she said we could hold him since it was close to .6. This shocked both of us cause this nurse was a stickler about her rules. I held him for a while and then the nurse checked his chart and said his doctor put orders in for him to start nipple feeding once a day and asked if we wanted to do it and of course we said YES!!! We were so excited cause its another big step for him to achieve in order to come home. He drank 14mils which is almost half of his normal tube feedings...25 mils every 3 hours. When we started he was sleeping and it took forever to get him awake and sucking. He would suck a little and stop then suck some more and stop. I know....the way I'm holding him looks weird but the nurse said to try that position first (thats how they start feeding in the NICU). I ended up feeding him the usual way most people feed a baby because he just wanted to sleep laying on his side. I think he did good for his first time learning to suck, swallow and breathe. Today he was 3lbs and between 5 and 6oz. Our little boy is growing!