Preemie and feeding tubes

My son was born 12 weeks early at 2 lbs 11 oz. 60 days later he is 5 lbs 11 oz. He has been off of respiratory support for about 2 weeks and is doing pretty well. He has been moved from the level 4 NICU to the level 3. The one area that has been a struggle is eating. From the beginning he has had a good suck but, has struggled with the swallow part. The OT has evaluated him saying that they do not see anything wrong and that he just needs time.

Well now his doctor just wants to surgically place a feeding tube right into his stomach because he doesn't see him progressing and send us home. We want him to be home, but we also want him to learn how to eat. We have been working on both breastfeeding and bottle feeding

The NICU is very full to the point where they have had to open up a satellite NICU on a regular patient floor and they are doubling up some rooms in the regular NICU. Part of me feels like they are trying to push us out because he is pretty stable. He does still need surgery to repair a large hernia but they want him to be 6lbs for that, so we may have to come back for that if they send us home. I would also prefer that they do this surgery before we leave.

My questions are: has anyone else been sent home with a surgically placed feeding tube? If so how long did your child have it? Did they learn to eat on their own or is it still placed years later? What is it like to tube feed on a daily basis? We're you able to still work on breastfeeding? We're you able to return to work and have your child go to day care?