Saturday - The Lord Is So Good!

Today started off just as any other day. We headed to the hospital in time for Mia's 11:00am feeding. When we got there her nurse said that she had a hard time all last night with her feedings and this morning also. She was taking maybe 15 cc's by bottle and getting the rest gavage (a tube through her mouth to her tummy). So we did our usual routine of taking her temperature and changing her diaper to try to wake her up a bit before her 11:00 feeding. The nurse gave us her bottle (48 cc's now...she's up to full feeds) and we attempted to see what she would take. She was barely able to take 1 cc. So the nurse gave her the full feed by gavage. Brad and I were so discouraged, to the point of tears, and so we stopped a moment to pray, that God would help Mia to take the food she needs from the bottle. In the 8 weeks that Mia has been here she has had some set backs, but I can't ever remember being discouraged. It felt like such a set back for her to have to have all of her feedings by gavage and she now had a tube back in her mouth, something that she had finally gotten rid of.

So around 12:00 one of the cardiologists came in to see how she was doing and I explained to them how she's been so tired and sleepy lately and now she is no longer feeding by bottle. He looked at her and said she looked fine and that sometimes with cardiac babies they'll get to full feeds and still be full at the next feeding so they don't want to take a bottle, but in a few days their tummy would adjust and they would have that hungry feeling and will feed well from a bottle. So Brad and I decided to be patient and give Mia a few days to get back to where she was.

At 2:00 it was time for her next feeding and her nurse and I decided we wanted to put a tinier tube in her mouth. Since we were going to be changing the tube, we decided to take it out and give her a chance with the bottle again without a tube in her mouth. She did so well! I was in awe when she took the entire 48 cc's by bottle...in about 20 minutes. (The goal is to get the feed done within 30 min.) Brad and I both were humbled at God's answer to prayer so quickly. And we were so happy that for at least 3 more hours she wouldn't have a tube in her.

At 5:00 we didn't know what to expect, would she feed well or be so tired from the last feed that she couldn't do it again. Again, she did so well with the bottle, she took 46 cc's in 30 minutes. And then again at 8:00 she took the entire bottle! It was so encouraging for us to watch God take care of even the smallest details for Mia. The task of taking her bottle seemed impossible to us, but God has again shown us through his power, nothing is impossible. And we know that we haven't been alone in praying for her today regarding this! God is so good! Words don't do justice to the amount of praise He deserves.