Gonzalez's Heart

I know many of you have been waiting to hear the news from the swallow study. I am sorry it took so long for me to update, but we have been very busy setteling into our new schedule.

We woke up a little earlier on Wednesday to get to Jaden's swallow study appointment on time. We dropped Ashley off at Adina's house so Ash could still go to school. Adina also picked her up and then brought Ashley to her gymnastics class. We then dropped Ethan off with Tammy in Maple Grove. We then went to the appointment. Jim, who worked with us while in the hospital remebered us very well and conducted the appointment.

Jaden had not eaten since 6am and by the time they started it was almost 11am. Jim was very impressed at how happy and content Jaden was especially not having eaten for so long. He also commented on how GREAT Jaden looked. So they started the test using thick Barium as if it was his thickened milk. After seeing him do well with that, they then tested Barium at a thin state with 3 different nipples. They used a slow flow cross tip and circle and a fast flow. He also tested him with a consistency of rice cereal and a spoon. He did wonderful. Jim said he knew exactly what to do with his tounge and swallowing and was very pleased at how well he could coordinate this all.

The end result......... (drum roll please). He did not aspirate. YEAH!!!!! We were all so proud of him. So this means that I can start nursing him. However, we need to wait and test Jaden with a slow flow nipple first for a week to make sure he can handle it and then to make sure he does not start to show any signs of aspiration. After a week of trying with the bottle, we then will transition into nursing. We will have to still bottle feed every couple feeding to keep up the higher calorie intake. We were going to start right away but were waiting on hearing back from Chip "the cardiologist." Of course I told Jim he was probably in Jamaca or something and good luck getting hold of him. We still have not heard back from him (no surprise on this end), so I am just going to start tomorrow.

It will be hard though to nurse because my supply has gone so low. I have started drinking "nursing mothers" tea and taking natural supplements that is supposed to help increase my flow. It seems to have helped a little but Jaden may not get what he needs so may get frustrated. It will probably take a lot of work and calculation to make sure to not pump too close to when he needs to eat. I will have to get him on a tight schedule as well as myself to make sure it works.

So all great news here!!! Hope you are all doing well and again thank you for all of your prayers. God has heard. We need prayers now for Jaden and myself to get where we need to be so he can nurse. It has been 5 long months of pumping and I am so ready to be able to hold my baby and feed him the way God intended.

Love, Steph