Baby Hiccups

Roscoe has continued feeding successfully from a bottle. He takes 5mL from a bottle and an additional 32mL through his feeding tube. Today they plan to increase his bottle feedings to either be more frequent (4x per day) or have more volume (10mL).

A cute side-effect of bottle feeding while he's on breathing support is that usually near the end of his feeding he develops hiccups. The hiccups are very faint, as you'd expect. To hear them, turn up the volume slightly and listen for a squeaking sound each time Roscoe's head jolts.

As long-time followers of this blog may recall, Alisha noticed Roscoe having hiccups before he had been born on the baby heartbeat monitors they had on her belly. Click here to see how Roscoe's hiccups looked back then.

I told Alisha that Roscoe's hiccups remind me of a squirrel with hiccups. What do you think?

I am encouraged because during these hiccups Roscoe's heartbeat stays steady and his oxygen needs don't increase. Since hiccups temporarily disrupt breathing, that's a good sign. This is just one more step that God has brought us to on Roscoe's journey home. His last weigh-in was at 3lb 9oz, so he's making progress!