My Syringe Fed Baby

As some of you know Lucas is the most precious thing in the world. I know I am partial, but I can't help it. The first couple of days he had a little trouble feeding. It was my intent to breast feed. Unfortunately he had a rough first 24 hours. With the forcep birth and the circumcision it made it hard for him to latch on and stay awake. His little jaw was sore from the forceps. And they gave him baby tylenol for the little surgery which made him sleepy. So it was just hard for him to eat.

I had the lactation nurse come in for a consult on Saturday morning to see if we could get the little man to eat. She worked with us for about 2 hours and was stumped. All of her little tricks weren't working. So she enlisted the help of another lactation specialist. She tried her tricks for another 30 minutes. Again, she was stumped. Together they suggested that I pump and we try a bottle and supplement with formula.

Well, he still couldn't get the sucking down. So we used a syringe to feed him what I pumped. This worked great. I would put a little in his mouth and then stick in my finger and away he would go. We got the sucking thing down! I was so proud of him. Then once he got that part down we gave him a little formula and all was well. So we thought.

Right before we were getting ready to leave we did another feeding. He took the syringe well and I thought he did great with the bottle, but the nurse thought otherwise. She was worried that he wasn't alert enough when eating and that he should be taking more. She suggested we head down to the neonatal nurses and see what they thought. I started to panic because I had group B strep.

Now usually you wouldn't worry about this because I had 3 doses of antibiotics during labor and my doctor wasn't worried at all. The only thing is you have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after delivery to watch him. BUT... the pediatrician (who will not be named online) on call that day came in to explain that we had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours. We already knew this and weren't complaining. Trust me having a nurse around just in case with a 2 day old is NICE. Unfortunately he said something that just stuck with me. He said sometimes with the GBS (Group B Strep) babies they will "Fade away and die." THESE ARE WORDS YOU NEVER SAY TO NEW PARENTS!!! I understand he wanted to make sure we stayed, but... Matt was so mad and I was speechless.

So all I am thinking while we are with the neonatal nurses are those words because he wasn't alert during feedings. I was trying to hold it together, but then I just broke down. Of course, some of it is hormones and some of it was just me being worried. Luckily the neonatal nurses were not worried at all and they said he just needed an easier flow nipple on the bottle. Once they put that on the bottle he was awake and eating! Yay! This also meant that we would get to go home!

Once we got home, he did great with his feedings. He ate the "liquid gold" from the syringe and the formula from the bottle. AND he was alert during feedings. Matt and were so excited and so proud. I know it is the little things in life that we are proud of now (farts, burps, pees, poops...). On Sunday my milk came in (I know you are all so happy to know that now), but this meant that we were able to eat both forms of food out of a bottle and the syringe was no longer needed! He is doing great with his feedings and loves to eat. Lucas showed that mean old doctor!

The syringe that he ate out of.