Mia had heart surgery when she was only about a month old. According to the doctors, her recovery time was extremely fast. She only had to stay in the hospital for a little over a week and then they sent us home!

The tube you see in her nose is called a “G-Tube” (gastrostomy tube). It’s used to get milk directly into the baby’s belly.

Normally babies learn to feed shortly after they’re born and they get lots of practice. But because Mia was in the hospital for so long, she didn’t get that practice. The nutrients she was getting for her first month were mostly through tubes that were connected to her. So, the doctors wanted us to use the g-tube at home in case she couldn’t understand breastfeeding or feeding from a bottle. It’s pretty common or babies who don’t get practice feeding early on in life.

Well, we had kept the tube in for several days when we got home from the hospital, and fed her regularly through it. But one day, we removed the tube so that we could change it with a new one, and she gave us a really nice smile! We could tell that she really preferred not to have it in. Shortly after that, she started feeding from a bottle!

We called the hospital to ask if it would be alright for us to get rid of the g-tube and they totally approved.

Since then, she’s been drinking from bottles like a champ. Currently, in February of 2020, she drinks from cups and cans as well. She’s not very good at it, but she skipped trying to drink from a sippy cup and went straight for cups and cans (often times resulting in lots of spilling).