Catching Up

Well, let me see if I can catch every one up.

I apologize for the delay in updates. For some reason or other, I seem to have a lack of free time these days!

Robbie is now about 9 1/2 pounds. (I bought a baby scale for home.) After a really bad month of weight gain, he had a really good one and was just over 9 pounds at his last doctor's appointment.

Unfortunately, things have gone downhill in the last couple of weeks. He just doesn't want to eat. I can only get him to eat when he's really drowsy or downright asleep.

I've talked to doctors, therapists and a ton of other parents of preemies. It's not uncommon but no one can seem to fix it.

I've spent an embarrassing amount of money on different types of bottles trying to find one that would make him want to eat again but nothing seems to work.

The doctor brought up putting a G tube back in. (That's the tube that goes in through the wall in his stomach to feed him. He had one for 6 weeks but he was eating so well at that time that it was taken out as soon as it was safe to do so.)

I really, really, really don't want to do that.

Robbie didn't exactly take surgery well last time (you might remember that it took him 3 days to come out of anesthesia) and the G tube was really a pain in the butt to maintain. It leaked almost constantly and had to be adjusted frequently.

At this point our plan is talk to the GI specialist and the pediatrician this week and see what can be done. I'm fairly convinced that this is all a result of stomach/gastic pain. I'm not sure if it's the reflux or what exactly but he just doesn't seem comfortable.

He's gone back to crying anywhere from a half hour to an hour after nearly every meal (he'll wake up crying in pain.) It's absolutely heart wrenching. All you can do is pat him until it passes.

So I think it's time for new meds and maybe some more tests to see what is going on. I hate to put him through any more, but this can't continue.

In better news, he has started on solids this past week. The doctor encouraged us to start sooner than later hoping that he'd love food and would eat it even when he won't take a bottle.

He seems to like it. He hasn't QUITE figured out how to get it from the front of his mouth to the back. He's only 4 months adjusted age, so he's still fairly young to do so. But with enough gumming and a little help from mom he's eating about a half ounce at a time. I'm planning to try oat cereal next and then move on to vegetables.

Other than the horrible stomach problems, he's really doing well. He's really learning to use his hands well. The animals on his play mat have been taking regular beatings. He's starting to figure out how to hold his pacifier in his mouth and definitely likes to suck on his hands.

He's becoming more and more verbal. I've caught him "talking to" his swing, his toys and he definitely yells when he's angry. Not cries- YELLS. I'm afraid he might have inherited my temper.

We're now able to play more as well.

The only thing eluding us from his 4 month milestones is being able to roll over from his stomach to his back. That was one is challenging because his stomach hurts all the time, so it's hard to do a lot of tummy time. But it's something we'll be working with our therapists on in the coming weeks.

His pediatrician says he CAN roll over (at his last apppointment she was able to get him up on his arms and he flung himself backwards) but I don't think it counts if it's just an angry accident.

I'm really hoping that his stomach issues improve dramatically in the next few weeks. A lot of babies do improve around the 4 month mark (which he hit today!) Hopefully with some new meds and therapies we can beat this w/o another surgery.

We appreciate any prayers, good thoughts or sacrifices to the Gods that anyone wants to make. We need less stomach problems and more weight gain.

More pictures coming soon!

--Trish