"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
--Jeremiah 29:11

Thursday, January 10, 2008

GI Doctor Update

We're home from Dr. Brady's now. He weighed 21 lbs. 6.5 oz. That's up one ounce since last Friday. She was happy to hear he's vomiting less and trying new textures and tastes. She is still (Thank God!) in agreement with us that we'll give him more time to get back to eating orally. She just thinks that with all the development he's doing, it's definitely out of the range of possiblility. Also, the main reasons for doing surgery for the g-tube (and in his case repositioning the pacemaker) would be if he is pulling it out constantly and can't stand it in there or if it is prohibiting him from developing. It is doing neither so he's fine with it in unless things change. We are going to try to sneak some extra calories in his overnight feeding by adding one scoop of Progestimil. It is a special formula that is supposed to be super easy to digest and shouldn't cause any upset tummy. If he tolerates that for a week we'll add two scoops which would bump him up to 24 cal feedings at night. Then if he tolerates that for a week or so we can start adding it to his daytime feeds. We'll just have to see how he does. Basically now he's just maintaining weight and she'd like to see him gain some more. She did say that my milk is the easiest to digest and so after he turns one he will stay on it rather than switching to whole cows milk. I'm kinda bummed b/c I was looking forward to the end of pumping, but I'll try to stick it out if it's the best thing for him. She said if I can't take it and want to stop, by all means she can find something he can digest (they even make formulas that are predigested!) such as Alimentum, but I know those are really expensive so if I can, I'm going to try to just stick it out a bit more and pray he starts eating more food soon! We go back in 1 month and that time see the nurse practitioner.

Tomorrow he will get this month's dose of his RSV vaccine (synagis).

Either he isn't crazy about sleeping in the closet (don't worry, the doors are off!), is overtired at night when his nap is cut short, has a new case of separation anxiety, or all of the above. Last night it was a three hour process to get him to bed for the night! He got so mad he made himself throw up. I could tell he was not having reflux because he could lay down just fine if I was in there. Once I left, he screamed bloody murder. So, if he were "normal" I'd probably give him a few nights of cry for 10 min, check on him, reassure him, let him cry some more. But since he's not the crying makes more phlegm which makes him gag which makes him throw up which makes him not gain weight! If I go in there and pick him up then he learns bad habits but keeps his food down. It is so hard to know what to do sometimes! Parenting. . .such joy (yes, that was said sarcastically)!