Collette Goings-On

Carter has been home for 5 weeks now. He's gained a ton of weight and is now 7 pounds, 2 ounces and almost 20 inches long. In the last two weeks he gained 21 ounces! He has chubbier cheeks and still has some serious bags under his eyes, probably because he's still having a hard time filling out his face! Carter is still on the very lowest setting for oxygen and has been for about two months. It's funny that the steroid shots I was given in the hospital before they were born worked to develop Weston's lungs but not Carter's.

Weston weighs 8 pounds, 11 ounces and is over 23 inches long. He is such a big boy! His look has changed a lot since he was born because he got so swollen with both of his surgeries but now he is long and skinny and it makes him look very grown up.

Weston has done an amazing job recovering from his surgery. It took him a little on the longer side to start eating again because they normally wait until they've had a bowel movement. Weston never really had one so they started feeding him after he was passing gas and had "good bowel sounds."

They started him on 5 mL every three hours from a bottle and went up slowly. Normally babies have a really hard time figuring out what they're supposed to do with a bottle when they haven't eaten for several months but Weston was having none of that! I still don't think he has ever left a bottle unfinished. He chows down everything in sight! So many of the nurses have told me they're amazed at how well he handled it. Carter told me he's very proud of Weston too. It was fun to see all of Weston's tubes slowly disappear after his surgery. Ventilator, Anderson line, NG tube, and PICC. Now he just has the monitor lines that every baby has in the NICU. He's turning into a normal baby!!!

Weston has three horizontal scars on his belly. I should take a picture to post but there is one long one in the middle where they opened him up for surgery and two small ones where they brought up his intestines to the surface for refeeding.

So as I said before, they went up very slowly on his volume. When he almost got up to full feeds, they took him completely off the TPN. That was a big day!! We thought Weston would be on that stuff for several years! The day after they took him off, he lost weight. Over the next week, he was up and down a lot in his weight so they tried to increase his volume but his stool output increased dramatically. As a side note his poo is very watery. So instead of increasing the volume, over the last three or four days, they've been adding a specialized formula to his milk to increase the calories even though he's not up to what's considered "full feeds." The formula is almost all the way broken down so that his intestines can handle it. Besides this special formula, he can't take anything except breast milk because his body wouldn't be able to break it down with the small amount of intestine he has. So he gained weight the last two nights and if he gains weight tonight he COMES HOME TOMORROW!!!!! I've been a little giddy all morning.

So Weston will have weight checks every week for the next two months with the pediatrician. They'll also draw blood tests for the next four weeks that need to be sent up to Primary's. In a month he'll have appointments with both the GI doctor and the surgery team. But, until then I am VERY much looking forward to tomorrow!