sore

See that? Bottle baby. A combination of mouth sores and teething sent Reuben on a nursing strike in the hospital and it was horrible. I took the photo to show part of why our bottle and our breast attempts were so unsuccessful: that bottle is at the side of his mouth. Chewing, chewing, chewing. Which didn't work for me. And got very little milk out of the bottle (feeding in the sling with music and swaying was ultimately our most successful approach. Sometimes I even tilted the bottle so he could get at the milk because I almost get how to use those darned things.).

(see? am I supposed to use two periods there? My side-comment parenthetical remarks get long and while I know what to do with one partial sentence, what do I do when I run on and on? I need to consult Ms. Truss again. And also stop commenting on my punctuation because now you'll analyze every post because I'm sure you're as punctuation paranoid as me. At least I just wrote "you're" appropriately. Pet peeve and you would not believe how lousy Nathan's students are at this in their--not there or they're--papers. Or else you would because you are as anal as I am.)

We also tried a lot of solids, which we have done less of at home because when he's nauseous he cannot tolerate them. I think we'd best work on that skill anyway. We had limited success with rice cereal and applesauce, but he did enjoy food from my tray:
Lettuce.Plastic lids.
Fudge brownie!

(you may note from the drooly line on the right that I alternated brownie and frosting sneaks with bites of rice cereal/applesauce mix--he was tricked into opening his mouth because the fudge was awesome and was only a little disgruntled at the switches)

See the abandoned breast pump and bottles in the photo? The room was strewn.

Once during Monday night he forgot his strike and nursed and I didn't quite give up hope.


....



Now we're home. Nursing like a champ. It's just better here. I'm going to do more Reuben food work now, though. We need more in our calorie-obtaining arsenal.

Oh, and his mouth is, too. Hooray, new white cells! Healing champs, those guys. Keep yours around, my friends.