Home at Last!

Sorry for not updating sooner, but it's for a good reason! Elliot came home last Wednesday after a 15 day stay in the NICU. Things were very busy while we finished getting the house ready for him to get home. The doctors were so pleased with his progress in the NICU. When we started to talk about discharge, they let me breastfeed as much as he wanted during the day. Then, they stopped fortifying the breastmilk that he was getting in the bottle. This is good because they wanted to see if he could gain weight on straight breastmilk. They knew that I wasn't planning on giving him formula and that I wanted to nurse him. For two days he took enough breastmilk to have adequate dirty and wet diapers as well as gain weight. Then they took his tube out and got his discharge stuff ready. First they gave him his hepatitis B vaccine and a Synagis shot (for RSV). He was able to qualify for Synagis because of the time of year as well as his gestational age at birth.

They also did a hearing test. This is done for premature babies or other babies that meet certain risk factors. He passed on one ear but didn't pass on the other. He's getting retested on Thursday. The docs told me that it can be anything such as fluid in his ear, so I'm not worried about anything yet. And lastly, he had his circumcision and passed his carseat test. On discharge day, he weighed 4 lbs 13 oz. Here are some pics from discharge day.

At his checkup yesterday, he already weighed 5 lbs 4 oz! Dr. Defusco (his pediatrician) was impressed! He has been nursing like a champ around the clock. He loves to sleep during the day and wakes about every 1 1/2 hours to nurse during the night. He's a very very good baby :). Here are some of my favorite pics of him since he's been home. I have a lot of cute ones with his big brother, but I'll save that for another post.

A Second Opinion

I know I haven't mentioned Isaac's hypoglycemia in awhile. That's a good thing, because he hasn't had any recent episodes. We have been giving him cornstarch before bed and paying extra attention to keeping food in him when he's sick. But we still have no answer/diagnosis. Today we visited the geneticist at Children's Hospital-Dr. Marble. He's really smart and good at his job...he specializes in metabolic disorders. I would know-working at Children's, I'm training in helping the metabolic dietitian :).

He basically got his history and did a physical exam. Isaac will be getting some labs drawn on Saturday to help with a diagnosis.For the most part, he did rule out some disorders. Now he's thinking it may be possible for him to have some type of glycogen storage disease (a defect in the breakdown of stored glucose to glucose you can use when fasting)...although this usually causes an enlarged liver, which he does not have. He also mentioned possibly having just ketotic hypoglycemia. This is better than nonketotic hypoglycemia. Making ketones is a normal response during fasting...it feeds the brain during those periods of fasting. And of course, there are other disorders on the table.

We had to reschedule his 4 year checkup but according to his measurements today, he's growing well! He weighs 34 lbs 5 oz and about 39 inches tall. His BMI/age is 50-75%, Wt/Age 25-50%, and Ht/Age 25%. His height took the biggest jump! In February he was between the 3-10%. So we are very excited about his progress.

Please keep him in your prayers and let us hope that we can find some answers to these episodes that he's had in the past.

This is only a test...

Baby Isaac at 34 weeks 2 days-his hand is next to his check making it look super chubby =)

So I decided that I would take the time to explain all these doctor's visits/appointments that I have to go to all the time. Just in case someone is interested. So, every Monday and Thursday I have to do a nonstress test (NST). This is actually pretty fun and relaxing. The purpose of the NST is to monitor the baby's heartbeat and movements and to see if he's in distress. These are done for most high risk women. I say they're relaxing because all I do is lie down in a recliner with my belly exposed. There are 2 belts around me-one to monitor his heartbeat and one to monitor my contractions. The nurse also takes my BP and the monitor keeps track of the readings on paper. So, the problem is that Isaac is apparently not a morning person and he never wants to wake up to do them. When a baby is sleeping, they take this thing to buzz my belly. It doesn't hurt but when he starts bouncing around back and forth, it does hurt. Most people only get buzzed once or twice (there are 4 of us to a room), but no, not me. I have to get buzzed about 3-4 times because he never wants to wake up. Apparently, I have a very cozy uterus. After being buzzed, the heartbeat should jump between 150-160. Overall, I am monitored for about 30 minutes.

Now if the readings don't come out good, or if his heartbeat is not good enough, I am sent for a biophysical profile (bpp). A bpp is basically an ultrasound, but it looks for specific movements by baby. He is then scored for each thing and he has 30 min. to do this. So far, I have had to get a bpp once a week because his heartbeat won't get up high enough during the NST. Some of the things they look for-small movements (like sucking), breathing, large movements, tone, etc. So far, he has passed his bpp's. They told me that everything is fine...but that he's just sleepy in the morning and doesn't like to move. If the bpp is not passed, I would have to go to L&D for further monitoring.

So far, that's 2 NSTs a week and possibly 2 bpps. Now, once a week after my NST I have to get a fluid check. This is basically another ultrasound but they measure the pockets of fluid around baby. We've gotten some cute pics by doing these. They are looking for the fluid to be between 5-25 cm. And they use about 3 places and then take an average. So far, mine have been great. My last one was 16.8.

Aside from these visits, I have a growth scan every 4 weeks (starting at 32 weeks). My next one is next week. And hopefully will be my last. This is basically another ultrasound and they measure all his body parts and organs to make sure that he is growing accurately. Again, this is done due to me being high risk.

I also go to the dr. every 2 weeks. Starting next week, it'll be every week. They triage me, check the heartbeat, measure my fundal height. For those that don't know what that is...the body is such a cool thing. By taking a tape measure and measure from the top of my pubic bone to the top of my uterus (in cm), it should be equal to the amount of weeks that I'm pregnant. (At this point it's +/- 4 weeks due to the baby's position). And then they basically see if I have questions. Every now and again I have to do a specific test. Next week, I have to test for Strep B.

So, that's about it. Interesting, eh? So at this point, I am always at the hospital. On a good note, gas prices just dropped to $4.25 =)

Looking good

I had another visit this morning. Everything is looking great. My BP is normal and baby's heartbeat is good. At the last visit I had, I had a triple screen test (aka Maternal Serum Analyte Screen) done which is a blood test that screens for certain conditions such as Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and neural tube defects. Everything is looking good according to the dr. Baby's chance of having Down Syndrome is .03%. I definitely don't worry as much as I used to because I can feel baby move now. It still feels like a flutter right now. I''ll enjoy that for now because I know soon he'll be punching and kicking me. =)

12 Week Visit

We went to the dr. on Friday for the first time. I really didn't know what to expect, but in the end it was awesome!! They just did a regular exam and then when they tried to find the heartbeat, they couldn't. It was pretty scary because they were looking for about 5 minutes and no one warned me that it's still kind of early to hear the heartbeat through the doppler! That was the longest 5 minutes of my life...in fact, it was probably only 2 minutes. Honestly, it was the scariest silence I've ever heard. We were both pretty upset, but then they decided to do an ultrasound. We got to see baby...and yes, only one baby...HAHA. It was amazing. I never though I would cry, but I did. A lot. We could see the baby clearly on the screen. We could also see the flicker of the heartbeat and see the baby kick! The only regret is not getting a picture! I guess I didn't think to ask...I assumed it was understood. Plus, I was just so excited to know that everything is ok =).

One thing that they are worried about is my high blood pressure. I am on my medication still, and it's not too high...but they don't want it to spike or get any higher. I'm taking a couple more tests for baseline labs and then they need to have me go in every 3 weeks to make sure it doesn't turn into preeclampsia. *crosses fingers* So, we'll be back on April 4th. If we get another ultrasound, I'll ask for a pic this time =)