February 13, 2011

Caleb had a great week last week. His throwing up is not as bad. He doesn't seem to be throwing up as much milk and it is happening less often. We can actually feed him awake now. We don't know if it is reflux, weaning off medication, overcoming the stress of surgery, or what, but it is definitely improving.

On Tuesday, the Early On therapist came and worked with Caleb. We worked on trying to find out where the problem is with his feeding from a bottle. He can suck a pacifier, his suck is just weak. He doesn't choke on his saliva when he sucks his pacifier, so he can swallow. He doesn't have an oral aversion, because he is doing normal baby stuff like putting his hands in his mouth and pulling your fingers into his mouth and chewing on them. I think the problem is that he is surprised when the milk comes out of the nipple. He is used to the pacifier where you can suck as hard as you want and nothing comes out.

The good news is that by the end of last week, Caleb was playing with sucking from a bottle again! It is not a pretty sight, but he is doing it. His sucking is very inefficient, it is more like chewing. At least if he will take the bottle, we may be able to teach him to suck properly. We were very excited! Hopefully we can get rid of the NG tube one of these days.

Caleb had his cardiologist appointment on Wednesday. Everything is looking good. I asked all kinds of questions about his discharge echo from the hospital. They think there are a few things that aren't right, but there is nothing they are going to do about them. It looks like he might have a non-moving clot and his pulmonary valve looks a little funny. The clot isn't moving and the valve works, so that is good.

On Thursday, the visiting nurse came to check on Caleb. His weight was down a little to 12 pounds, 3 ounces and his oxygen saturation was 84%.

Friday, I took Caleb to the pediatrician to get some information on his reflux. I asked the cardiologist on Wednesday, but they deal with hearts - just hearts! Caleb's pediatrician increased his Zantac dose and checked him out. At the pediatrician, Caleb weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces so we aren't worried about the lower weight on Thursday. Caleb is still not on the growth chart, but he is growing. We found out that Caleb has an ear infection. He is now on an antibiotic for that. At least we know he belongs in our family - Sam is the king of ear infections and I was the queen.

Caleb is pretty happy and really seems to be adjusting to our "normal"!