We love this verse, and my mom found it on a gown!

We read to him after his feedings every day.

After a bath, getting very sleepy.

This washcloth was a gift to us. The NICU nurses thought it suited him better for a blanket, and this is what I saw when I walked in this morning. So cute!!

Baby Jake is doing so well yesterday and today!! Dave and I have been trying to feed him ourselves every 3 hours so I didn't have time to update the blog yesterday. So today will be two blog updates in one!

Yesterday the speech therapist and physical therapist came to evaluate Jake. The physical therapist was super pleased with his muscle tone and coordination. She said he is right where he should be for his age. (A big 4 days old!!) However, the speech therapist was concerned that Jake wasn't feeding in the correct suck/swallow/breathe pattern and that's what was causing his apnea episodes. We knew that he was definitely not taking a breath when he first started the bottle, because his oxygen saturation would drop and all his monitors would go crazy for a few seconds. We didn't know how to count swallows and breaths (6 swallows and 1 breath, in case you were wondering). Jake was taking between 20-30 his first time with the bottle, so now we count and make him take a breath before we give him back the bottle.

Anyway, the speech therapist put him on bottle feeding every other time again instead of every time. Dave and I were dissapointed because we kind of considered it a setback to the progress he had made. BUT... the first time after his NG feeding he decided to take 50 cc out of his bottle instead of the usual 33!! We were so surprised and thrilled! We were so happy with 33, we never dreamed he would practically double it in one feed!! The doctors and nurses are all shocked as well. Just goes to show the power of prayer! Jake is exceeding all of his doctors and nurses expectations for him!

So, today, we are going to try to see if he will take 50cc from a bottle at every feeding, instead of every other. If he gets too exhausted or he has a set back, we will just go back to every other for a bit. He needs to get to 75 cc at every feeding in order to talk about going home. It seems like so much for one little tummy, but our little boy is determined to show everyone! Who knew so much could depend on, and we could be so excited about, half an ounce of formula? Haha.