Two steps forward one step back

Let's save the good news for last....

One step back:

Just yesterday I posted about how well Elise had been keeping her food down. That changed a bit since my last update. She has had a couple episodes of spitting up and gagging to the point of needing suctioning and a little oxygen to help her get back to baseline. The solution for now is to decrease the amount slightly and to have a pump deliver her the food over a period of an hour. Previously it was going into the ng tube with gravity and would fill her stomach in about 20 minutes. This will allow her time to adjust and digest the food more slowly. If she does well with this they will increase the feeds and decrease the length of time slowly to get her back to where we started hopefully. 

Two steps forward:

1) Elise had an exceptional visit with the speech pathologist (SLP) today. We gave her a bottle and she took 9mL from it! That's only about 1/6 of her typical feeding but it's a great start. The SLP said "she has improved significantly from last week!" 

2) At her most recent feeding today Elise took the pacifier for a whopping 45 minutes! She's never taken it for such an extended period of time in the past. 

The pressure is on now. The SLP will return tomorrow and if Elise does well with the bottle again they will allow us to bottle feed her a specific amount each day to start building up her feedings. I'm praying I will be able to update you tomorrow with the fantastic news that she did it! We are cautiously optimistic. 

Today Elise had bath time so we got to see her sweet face without the tube and tape for a bit. Here she is looking adorable...

I know I've said this numerous times but we are so thankful for our amazing families who have helped us with literally everything we could possibly need. Maggie and Troy spent hours this weekend finishing staining our deck for us and stocking our freezer with some crock pot meals. All while Carson and Gavin kept Emma entertained. My mom always taught us that second to God, there is absolutely nothing more important than family. There is an incredible sense of peace that comes from knowing that whatever lies ahead, we have family who will love and support us and help us along the way. Everything else is just bonus.