Give me back my son!

Well, we are having the usual hiccups and snafus prior to coming home. This is further complicated by the fact that this is a long holiday weekend and the end of the month (which means that we are changing attendings). Allan is coming home with 1) oxygen 2) an NG tube and 3) an apnea monitor. And he'll be getting nine (9!) medicines. You have to love it when the docs ask you how you feel about that -- What.Ever. If I tell you that this is really sh*tty and, to paraphrase Bartleby, we would prefer not, does that mean that we can go home without this stuff? Because, if that's an option, sign us up. Otherwise, don't ask. If this is what we have to do, this is what we will do. Thank goodness that Cheryl went to bat for us on the formula. Because he was small and they wanted him to gain weight, they sent Griffith home on 24 calorie formula. This means we came home with regular formula but we mix it differently from the directions so that we have a higher caloric content. Straight breast milk is 20 calories per ounce so every ounce of the formula that we give Griffith has 4 extra calories. Well, because Allan was "too fat," he was on 22 calorie formula. So we would have had to have mix up different formula for each baby. The last attending essentially brushed off my inquiry about sending Allan home on the same formula as Griffith. The point apparently being that is was a minor inconvenience (the definition of "minor inconvenience" being one that plagues us rather than the doctor, apparently). Honestly, even minor inconveniences when you have a half dozen (or more) of them can become problematic. Anyhoodle, the new attending was more sympathetic and so we are going home on 24 cal but with less volume. Which seems to make sense since the kid won't actually EAT any of it. Allan is still piddling around with his bottle feeds so they are getting an occupational therapist to come in and evaluate him for an oral aversion. I can't remember if I've explained this before. If I have, you can skip the next part. Because of the vent tubes and other stuff that they shove down preemies' throats, some of them begin to associate things in their mouths with bad things. So they don't want to suck on a bottle. Because he will sometimes do great with his feeds, they haven't thought that he had an oral aversion, but we are kind of down to what harm will it do to have him evaluated? Maybe they'll see something that someone has missed and we will be able to jumpstart his bottle-feeding.
Griffith is doing great. He got a little stomach bug last night (which he gave to Momma) so we went to the pediatrician this morning. He is just fine and seems to be on the mend. Aided in part by Miss Flora who has spent all day (again) spoiling her precious little angel. Honestly, the kid won't have any sense at all if he listens to all her sweet-talking. We weighed this morning and Griff is a solid 6 and a half pounds. He won't catch Allan (8 pounds 12 ounces) any time soon, but he is definitely holding his own.
We are looking forward to a good weekend and tying up loose ends before Tuesday. Dad and Griff are going to watch the UK game on Sunday. Might as well introduce him to the concept of "hope springs eternal" and "just wait until basketball season" early.