Real food coming his way! Hooray!

Below is the update from Jamie. Can I just say wow! Wow what an experience this has all been and how amazing it is that we live in a day that Seth could be Seth. I mean the doctors can fix crazy problems and keep little ones alive even though their stomachs are clueless until all works properly! What a blessing! We are SO proud of you Seth and cannot wait to meet you! You are an inspirational little warrior that I am sure will continue to inspire so many through out your long wonderful healthy life that is to come soon!

So, about 20 minutes after we got to the hospital today, the nurse walks in and says that Seth's replogle is coming out, and he's going to get his first bottle! I was in the middle of pumping, so I just stopped because I wanted to see her take the replogle out. The first time I watched him yawn after it was out, I saw him start to wince at the end, expecting it to hurt, and then he looked really surprised because it didn't! I was so happy to see that! He always cried after yawning when he had the replogle down his throat.
Things turned out perfectly, because I had just pumped, and so he got to take fresh milk for his first bottle. It was only 5ml, which is hardly anything, but it's a start! He only switched to a normal size pacifier yesterday, prepping him for bottle nipples, and he's been doing well with that. It took him a while to suck on the bottle nipple--he just has no idea what he's supposed to do with a bottle! His stomach doesn't feel hungry, because it's never really had food in it except the first couple days of life. So even though he barely had anything to drink, it probably took 10 minutes for him to get it all down. He just looked so confused! haha! But he got it all down, and afterwards I burped him and got a few burps out--he didn't spit anything up, so that was good!His second feeding was 3 hours later, and the nurse let me feed him. She had me hold him out in front of me, with my hand under his head, and he was lying down on his side so that when he swallowed, it would go down the side of his throat. That's apparently easier for these little guys. He was really sleepy, so it took a while for him to get it down again, but once he started to suck, he was able to keep at it until it was gone.
We're so excited that we're moving forward, and so proud of him! We don't know yet if his stomach is pushing anything down. We know it CAN go down--we just don't know if his stomach will cooperate right away, or if it will take a while. But either way, this is definitely a step in the right direction!!