Joshua had his first big adventure today, an outing exploring most of the hospital. He was so alert and oohing and aahing at everything we went past as we wheeled his crib down to radiology for his swallow study. That's a pretty big trip for such a little guy. Whew, what a relief! Joshua's swallow study today was normal. That means he is not aspirating milk into his lungs, and it narrows everything down to reflux causing his eating issues. Reflux is much easier to treat than aspiration, and they are starting him on a PPI (medication like Prilosec or Nexium) today. Hopefully it will make him feel better about eating. Another positive thing about the test being normal is Joshua doesn't need his milk thickened (as we suspected he might). If he did need it thickened, he would have to be on formula, unable to take breastmilk because the enzymes in breastmilk don't allow it to thicken. I have two freezers full of pumped milk, and after getting up to pump night after night, I would have been very disappointed if my labor of love was for nothing. Actually, my friend Kimberly, who is adopting twin babies, would put it to good use, so it wouldn't have been for nothing. For now, anyway, Joshua should be able to drink it.
The other noteworthy thing today was moving into a new room. Without any input from us, they moved us into a different pod, purely for nurse staffing reasons since three of the six babies in our pod were discharged home yesterday. It's fun to have a change of scenery after so many weeks in the same little room. We are now in the room with the best view in the unit, according to our primary nurse, Trinity. It overlooks the beautiful mountains and the entrance to the hospital. I just hope we will be able to keep some of the same nurses we are used to having. You'd think we'd have had every nurse by now, but we had a new one today, and she was great.
Last night, Joshua gained 2 oz. He is now up to 2700 grams, or 5 lbs 15.2 ounces. I have a hunch he's already over 6 lbs, but he's not due to get weighed for another hour, so we'll have to wait to find out tomorrow.
Thanks for tuning in!
Karrn,
ReplyDeleteGreyson was 5 lb. 8 oz when he was born and had acid reflux (after a bunch of trouble shooting on the cause of his pain when trying to drink and spitting up EVERYTHING). They put him on a baby version of Zantac and that worked pretty good for him. Guess it is typical for premmies. Joshua has had a long road but, I think he has nothing but blue skies ahead. He's one tough little guy!