+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Baby's first belch!
Alex's dilation yesterday went very well. They were able to stretch him by one more size, and he handled the whole thing very well this time around. The only time he got really upset was when they took his IV out. Afterwards, we had a rather long chat with Dr. Cilley, the surgeon who did Alex' esophagus repair and this dilation. He showed us some pictures of the inside of Alex's stomach and esophagus, and explained some potential long term plans and possibilities. As part of that conversation, he brought up the subject of feeding. Basically, he said that we should start trying to feed Alex as much as he'll tolerate, so that we can start to get an idea of how much his reflux might bother him, and possibly get rid of the tube that is threaded through his g-tube button and into his intestine.
So, that's what we did. Dan put about an ounce of milk in a bottle, and we offered Alex the bottle several times last night. In all, he took about 1/3 of an ounce over a few hours, but he didn't seem to mind taking it. After doing this, Alex was sitting on my lap and getting rather agitated. I didn't know what was wrong, so I just held him on my shoulder and started patting his back....and out came this really loud, big belch!! It seems strange to most people probably, but Dan and I never would have thought to burp him. He's never done it before. In any case, he was much happier after that, at least until he started to have something that I can only assume is his reflux. He didn't throw up, but he was definitely uncomfortable. Oh, well, we'll keep trying. And this time, we'll try the burping on purpose!
If anyone wants to hear more on the surgeon conversation, click on more.
(more)+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Moving forward
Things have been really hectic lately, between Kari working, me going to school, and trying to finish up the work that I need to do for my thesis, and taking care of Alex. As a result, Kari hasn't been able to spend as much time physically at work, and I have been working extremely odd hours. All of this resulted in an extreme lack of sleep, and important things falling by the wayside. My work that I need to finish before I leave for GE has been going too slowly to finish in time. (They won't let me start work unless everything for my PhD is completed on my start date) Kari and I sat down and talked things through, and we decided that the best thing to do was for Kari to stop working earlier than we had originally planned, in about 2 weeks from now, instead of in March or April. We've worked out a budget, and if we live frugally, we should be able to tolerate the loss of her income for the next few months. Hopefully, this will mean that we can be saner people.+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Feeding
Alex's feeding issues have gotten pushed off once again. We were hoping to discuss this with his pediatrician on Friday, but for some reason, they moved our appointment to a different doctor, so she had no idea what was going on. She told us to talk to the GI specialist about it when we meet with him on the 7th. Chances are that they are going to want to perform a swallow study before they start an organized program to start him on oral feeds. The swallow study will tell them whether or not Alex can swallow without breathing in any of the fluid, and whether or not he has reflux.
Alex was a very cute little boy yesterday (even more than normal). He was laughing and smiling up a storm, which just makes your heart melt. We even took him out with us to lunch. We are trying to take him out of the house every now and then and not go to the doctor's office so that he doesn't automatically assume that the car seat means doctor. He was such a good boy...we ate lunch and went to KMart without incident, then he went home and took a good nap. He is really starting to interact with us and with the things around him. He's starting to play with toys, eat his blankets (and his toys), and really show his personality. What fun!