Today was doctor appointment day. Nathan had 3 appointments today. Driving down to Children's, was not fun. The traffic was really slow, because of the slippery road conditions. It didn't think the roads were too bad, but again I was only going about 40mph all the way there. We made it to the office at about 8:10am, and our appointment was at 8am. His appointment went well. Dr. El-baba came in and at first was a lil disappointed in Nathan's weight gain, but when he realized the RSV set him back, he was okay with the weight. We showed him the tube site area because it is real red, and has been bothering him. He said its normal, and to take peroxide and water (equal mixture) to clean the site area and that will help it out a lot. He also talked about when he wants to change the tube to the mickey button. This tube has to be at least 8 weeks before it can be changed. So our next appointment is Feb 5th, then we will schedule the procedure. It will be outpatient, but they will put him to sleep, go down with the scope, pull out the existing tube, and replace it with the button. What nice about that is, there will be a port on his stomach, and when its time to eat or give medicine, you just attach the tube to the port. So he does not have to worry about the tube constantly being attached to him. I can't wait for that. He loves to try and pull that tube, it scares us. Dr. El-baba then called in the dietician so we can go over his feeding schedule and make any necessary changes. She was really impressed by my records, and said to keep it up. We are making a few changes to his schedule. 1) We are upping his night time feed. Instead of 400ml over a 10hr period we are going to do 450ml over a 10 hour period. So giving him a extra 50 ml will give him 59 more calories a day. (1st night no issues, did not throw up) 2) replacing one feeding witha formula feed. Either by mouth or by tube. I really think this will help him get more calories, and gain more weight. We also now have to call Dr. El-baba's office once a week with his weight, and I have to email the dietician his weight once a week too. They really want to stay on top of him.
The next appointment was with the orthopedic, we got to their office at 9:45am, and our appointment was not until 12:30pm, so I asked if they could take us early. She went to check and they said no problem. After getting into the room, we went over his entire history, the nurse said she would be back with Dr. Yassir. A few moments later he comes in and said he went over the ultrasound and everything looks fine. Nathan is perfect, and we do not need to come back. (A little back story) When newborns grow, their hip joints are cartilage, and then turn into bone. Well Nathan's right hip has already turned into bone, and his left is still mostly cartilage. The doctor said it will catch up. He also said that if down the line we are concerned about it, he can do another ultrasound and/or x ray, and that would be done after about 4 months of him walking. We are thrilled everything is fine on that end!!!!!
Last appointment was with his PCP. It was just a nurse's visit to get some blood and test for anemia. Luckily it was just a poke of the finger. Nathan cried for a minute, but then was fine. After about 5 minutes the nurse came back, and said everything was fine and he is not anemic. (Thank god) She then did his weight check. We have to see them every 2 weeks for a weight check. I can't believe how many weights I need to remember, but I have a nice spreadsheet for that, and I keep all the records on here.
We FINALLY got home about 1:30pm, where Kevin hung out with Naters, and I took a nice nap. It was well needed. Kevin has been sick, so hasn't been helping me with Nathan. It was nice to play a little catch up. I got up about 4:30pm, and we headed off to GGma's house to do our Christmas exchange with Matt, Kristal and Adryan. That was nice, even though Adryan went to bed early, and Nathan was a lil crabby. Plus we had to leave by 7:30pm because Nathan starts his feeding at 8pm. Kevin took care of Nathan all night last night, and I got to sleep from 8:30pm to 5:30 am. That was SO nice, and I slept ALL night. That was well needed.
Well thats it for now. I will post again soon. Have a great weekend everyone, and try to stay warm.
