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.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Return of the Butter Bean (part II)
Well, here we are back in the hospital. Again. Allan has built up too much fluid. Again. We had to make an ER run at 3 a.m. (It was 10 or 11 the first time.) He's doing fine, but will likely be here for a couple of days while they work on his medicine cocktail. Again.
I will try to blog tonight once I am home, but that will depend on how cooperative Griffith is and there is really no predicting that.
I will try to blog tonight once I am home, but that will depend on how cooperative Griffith is and there is really no predicting that.
Monday, September 18, 2006
The Return of the Butter Bean
Two and a half days in to the return of Allan to the homeplace. So far, so good. He has had a couple of good nights with only a few alarms. He seems to be eating better, too. He's still not rocking it out or anything but he's eating about 2 ounces at a go during the days. He's still on the continuous feeds at night. His weight gain is steady and he is up to a solid 10 pounds and 5 ounces as of today. We made it to the pediatrician's office today and the doc says he looks good. We go back on Thursday to make sure that we keep a handle on this fluid thing. We also have an opthalmologist's appointment on Friday. With any luck we will be discharged from her care until February.
We took our first big family stroll last night in the great big double stroller. We didn't go too far afield -- just around the neighborhood, but a good time was had by all. Allan slept most of the time. Griffith was wide awake and taking it all in. (He's helping type right now, so forgive the misspellings. I would put him down but a) he cries and b) I hardly get to hold him when Flora is here. Basically I have to wait for her to put him down to go to the bathroom to even have a shot.)
Griffith's major recent accomplishments are that he is learning to blow spit bubbles and also to coo. (Not at the same time. Yet.) He doesn't seem to have control of either, really and the cooing sometimes comes as a complete shock to him. He has also managed to master peeing out the back of his diaper. Neither Flora nor I are sure how he's doing it but he's done it to both of us. His front will be completely dry and his back will be utterly soaked.
Allan's major accomplishments include doing little, bitty baby push-ups while on his stomach. He has also taken to waving his arms around. Not nearly as much as Griffith does, but he is doing it more all the time and he definitely does it more when the two of them are lying next to each other. They still seem pretty unimpressed with each other. They are both very interested in the elephant/mirror/mobile-thingy that plays songs and lights up when it picks up vibrations. Dad is going to have to replace the batteries in the bassinet. It plays music and vibrates, but, of late, it sounds like a drunken gypsy or a broken calliope. And the vibration seems to have slowed to a jiggle. We certainly don't want to have a break down in the middle of the night. That would be a Major Disaster.
We are now looking forward to a couple of days of just being home and getting settled down and settled in. We'll see how Flora manages with two. She was telling me today just how spoiled Griffith is. As if she is part of how he got that way. She and Allan had a good long snuggle this afternoon while Griffith took a nap, but there will come a day when he is awake and realizes that someone else is sitting in his Flora's lap and I'm not sure any of us are prepared for what will follow.
We took our first big family stroll last night in the great big double stroller. We didn't go too far afield -- just around the neighborhood, but a good time was had by all. Allan slept most of the time. Griffith was wide awake and taking it all in. (He's helping type right now, so forgive the misspellings. I would put him down but a) he cries and b) I hardly get to hold him when Flora is here. Basically I have to wait for her to put him down to go to the bathroom to even have a shot.)
Griffith's major recent accomplishments are that he is learning to blow spit bubbles and also to coo. (Not at the same time. Yet.) He doesn't seem to have control of either, really and the cooing sometimes comes as a complete shock to him. He has also managed to master peeing out the back of his diaper. Neither Flora nor I are sure how he's doing it but he's done it to both of us. His front will be completely dry and his back will be utterly soaked.
Allan's major accomplishments include doing little, bitty baby push-ups while on his stomach. He has also taken to waving his arms around. Not nearly as much as Griffith does, but he is doing it more all the time and he definitely does it more when the two of them are lying next to each other. They still seem pretty unimpressed with each other. They are both very interested in the elephant/mirror/mobile-thingy that plays songs and lights up when it picks up vibrations. Dad is going to have to replace the batteries in the bassinet. It plays music and vibrates, but, of late, it sounds like a drunken gypsy or a broken calliope. And the vibration seems to have slowed to a jiggle. We certainly don't want to have a break down in the middle of the night. That would be a Major Disaster.
We are now looking forward to a couple of days of just being home and getting settled down and settled in. We'll see how Flora manages with two. She was telling me today just how spoiled Griffith is. As if she is part of how he got that way. She and Allan had a good long snuggle this afternoon while Griffith took a nap, but there will come a day when he is awake and realizes that someone else is sitting in his Flora's lap and I'm not sure any of us are prepared for what will follow.
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