Welcome to the Life of the Halls: Eating

As you can tell from the little tube in Mayson's nose, when he was first born he wasnt able to take a bottle. I am not sure how many of you know this but at 32 weeks gestation age a baby doesnt yet have the suck swallow breath reflex that newborns have. So premies get fed with a feeding tube that is placed down their nose that goes to their stomach. He recieved his feedings from this for awhile... It was very hard on mommy because I wanted to hold him and fed him like everyone else got to do with their babies... But I knew I had to be patient and that he would soon catch on. Babies usually learn how to do this at 35 weeks and sometimes sooner. We tried bottles here and there but he was never able to drink them all because at such a little size it was alot of work to drink that WHOLE BOTTLE mommy and it wore him out. The first time I got to give him a bottle he drank ALL of it .. yes I said ALL of it!!!! I was soo happy!!!! The nurses told me now dont get your hopes up he is still young and probably wont do this everytime.. Of course I was like he did it once yes he will :) hehe... I prayed and prayed that little Mayson would show those nurses he could do it... Welll... of course they were right he didnt do it everytime.... Although each day that passed he did better and better and would drink more and more.... He was finally up to his max feeding for his weight, but still wasnt drinking all of it.. it is kind of depressing because you know he can do it... I guess it was the hormones getting back to normal but I would cry becuase I just wanted him to do it for mommy.... Well of course I leave and when I get back I had a little note from his nurse on his dry erase board.. I will post a pic so you can see the great news!!!!

When we left the hospital I think he was drinking between 30-40cc of breast milk every 3 -4 hours... NOW he is almost drinking 3 onces every 3 hours!! He is becoming mommys little chunky monkey!!! As of Monday he weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces...:) I was sooo happy!!!!!

Here are a few pics:)