Here we remain

Allan is still in the hospital and will be for a few more days at least. He has been doing better today -- breathing easier and generally acting more like himself. The pulmonologist examined him today and reviewed his records, etc., and came in and had a heart-to-heart with Big Al about staying home. It would be nice to be able to say that the doctor immediately identified Allan's problem and the fix for it. Unfortunately, he can't really explain why he seems to be having the trouble that he is having. There are 3 theories: 1) that he is micro-aspirating (getting formula down the wrong pipe); 2) that he is just getting overloaded with fluid; and/or 3) that he just has crappy little lungs that he is going to have to outgrow. Since we can't really do anything about no. 3 we are working on the other two. With respect to no. 1, they are going to do x-rays of him while he bottle feeds to see if he is getting some of it in his lungs. With respect to no. 2, they are going to start him back on inhaled steroids, start a 5 day course of oral steroids and adjust some of his other medicines slightly. The goal being, of course, to get him home for longer than 5 days. The only good that has come of this whole mess has been that the opthamologist came over to do his follow-up eye exam and we are discharged for 3 months. As a result of the eye exam, though, Allan has been worn out and sleeping all afternoon. This effectively means that there will be no bottle-feeding this afternoon so the microaspirate issue will simply have to wait for another day. Allan's girlfriend Phyllis has managed to secure one of the coveted bird mobiles and brought that to him this afternoon so he'll have that to look forward to tonight. Allan has once again made himself the center of attention. His girlfriends from the NICU (Sarah, Cheryl, Alissa, and Jennie) have been to visit and fawn over him which he loves. The opthamologist was glad to see him and said he was the sweetest, best-natured baby (She also asked immediately how Griffith was doing and commented that it always surprised her that they reacted so differently to her. She says Griffith really got the Aries personality.)

Griffith is doing great. He is taking nearly 3 ounces of formula per feeding and is sleeping for longer periods of time. He is dropping a feeding, but last night it was the 9 p.m. one. For whatever reason, he really isn't inclined to stop the 3 a.m. one. He has one of those mats that lays on the floor and has toys hanging from it. Flora hit upon the idea of putting him underneath it on his sleeping wedge and that was a big success. He swatted the inflated ball within a ball over and over again. He found it pretty startling when it bounced back but that really didn't deter him. He was a little like Rocky (the boxer, not the flying squirrel) working the punching bag.