Friday evening (right before I was about to take a shower too) they had to bump us out of our single room into a shared room as the pediatric unit was filling up and they needed our room for an isolation case. I was kinda sad too as hubby was finally able to stay overnight on the weekend and we lost the pull-out couch bed that was in the single and got stuck with a small pull-out chair bed. We made it work - one of us always had to be laying on our side and it was an excuse to get some much needed snuggle time in too!
When we moved rooms, there was another younger couple, close in age to us, with a baby - maybe a year and a half old, as he could watch Mickey DVDs and grasp what was going on. They had brought him in earlier in the week for a fever, but the doctor's couldn't figure out what was causing it. Saturday they did an MRI on him and turns out he had a huge abscess on his hip that was bigger than his bladder and they needed to do surgery to get it drained! Poor guy! He was crying in pain a lot too and scared of any of the hospital staff in uniform! They had them move to a different room for recovery while he was in surgery though. I saw the mom a few times in the hall the rest of the weekend - she looked like she was doing okay so I'm assuming the surgery went well.
Our next "roommates" for the remainder of our stay... well, I feel bad for their little guy! Apparently the baby - about 4 months old I gathered - is a twin who was born 10 weeks early, but has had one health issue after another and was on oxygen when they brought him in Saturday evening. Also, since he was born he's been in the hospital the majority of the time - the longest stretch at home was just 2 days! This morning one of the doctors that's been working with them came in and was telling the nurse how annoyed he was that they brought him back in again as there seemed to be nothing wrong with him this time, other than the mom freaked out over something that was nothing. Like I said, I felt really bad for the little guy as his parents just kinda left him there! They were there til about 11pm or so Saturday night before leaving to check-in to a hotel nearby (guess they didn't want to try the pull-out chair like we did!) and they came back a little bit briefly Sunday afternoon but left by 6pm - soon after they left, their little guy woke up, crying, like he was lonely. I was holding Jay as hubby went to go get us dinner, and I just felt so bad for the guy I called for the nurses, letting them know his parents had left recently and he was just crying so much - one of them came in to hold him for a bit til he fell asleep again. They had doctors in and out throughout the night checking in on him... we left today just before noon and his parents still weren't back!
I couldn't imagine leaving Jay alone in the hospital like that! Yes, he's not even a month old yet and he won't remember any of this when he's older, but still... I couldn't bare the thought of my baby waking up, crying, in a strange foreign scary place like the hospital without a familiar face there to comfort him and hold him! I'd feel like such a horrible parent!
Also, the nurse we had our last night there... yeah, not a fan. All the other nurses were great and really helpful, this one was just really young and seemed a bit inexperienced - it showed. She also got on my nerves a little bit later in the night, as she had offered to feed Jay for his 3am feeding so I wouldn't have to wake up and could catch some extra sleep since hubby wasn't there to help me. Well I put him down around 130am but he woke back up by 2. She walked past in the hallway and saw us and came in to check up on us. She thought he was hungry despite his feeding not being for almost an hour and she offered to feed him early so I could climb back in bed. I hesitated at first but ended up agreeing due to my tiredness and her insistence. I was half awake, half asleep but I had a bad feeling he'd spit up while she fed him because she wouldn't make him slow down (Jay starts out acting like he's starving and downs the first .5-1oz like it's no one's business and by the end of Sunday he was wolfing down 2oz bottles in 10minutes or less!). And I was right... she gave him 1oz and burped him, but I could hear him gulping like crazy, not stopping to actually swallow, and he "threw up." I was kinda pissed but too tired to get up or say anything. She stopped the feeding, cleaned him off, and put him down without offering him anymore to fill himself up (I noticed that if he spits up a little, after a few minutes for his tummy to settle he'll eat a little more to make up for what he spit up)... he started fussing again 20min later and I got up with him. We gave him more to eat at 4am and I insisted on feeding him myself this time - he ate all 2oz, no problem for me. The nurse was shocked. Clearly, mommy knows how to feed her baby. He ended up sleeping on my chest that night - I think the doctors and nurses coming in every hour or so to check on oxygen baby was waking him up when he was sleeping alone in the crib. I woke up at 8am, shocked that 1) the nurse didn't wake us up for his 7am as she was so anal the night before about us waking him up at the 3hr mark so he wouldn't get off schedule, and 2) she didn't tell us at the 730 shift change that she was leaving and inform us who our daytime nurse would be as they did every morning! Yeah... the rest of the nurses were great... but her, she kinda got on my nerves as the night/morning went on.
Showing posts with label hopsital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hopsital. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Home from the hospital
We were finally discharged from the hospital late this morning (Monday).
Since my last post on Wednesday, Jay's made quite a bit of improvement!
Thursday they started upping the amount of formula he was continuously being fed every few hours, trying to get him back up to 20mL as they had bumped him down to 10 after the first night of the continuous feeding as he was spitting up still. We got to about 15mL on Friday evening when the stomach doctor that started seeing us decided to go ahead and have us start feeding him by bottle again (50mL of 24 calorie formula) every 3 hours as he felt that the continuous feed wouldn't help get us out of there any quicker as with Jay constantly having food in his tummy, he wasn't getting that sensation of being hungry and wanting to eat. They had us do that for the rest of the night and all of Saturday before Sunday just letting him eat as much as he could/wanted every few hours - 50mL is just under 2oz, and when they let us, he was averaging 2oz per feeding on Sunday and he was keeping it down for the most part too!
Since he was eating fine on his own and keeping it down pretty well and gaining weight they let us go today - much to my pleasure as I was sick and tired of sleeping on the hospital pull-out furniture and just being there in general.
They have us feeding him Enfamil's Lipil formula, mixing it a special way so it's more concentrated giving him 27 calories per oz. He weighed 6lbs, 12.1oz this morning when we left - a huge improvement from the 6lbs, 1oz he came in at!
Because he has to be on the higher calorie formula, obviously I'm not breastfeeding. There's no telling how long he'll need to be on the higher calorie formula and my supply already seems to have depleted. I'm fine with it though so don't think I'm beating myself up over the fact I can't breastfeed him - I'm not and like I mentioned in a previous post, I kinda welcome the fact that we have to give him formula as with all the post-partum crap (I was dealing with the depression and emotional stuff of it to a lesser degree), the stress of breastfeeding wasn't helping it any.
He's been doing good since we got home though - he ate 2.5oz for his afternoon bottle before taking a 2.5hr nap IN THE BASSINET!!! It was a shocker to me too, as he fell asleep after eating and I put him down in there so I could at least do some stuff before he woke up... and Little Man was passed out! He's napping in there right now too - I expect him to wake up around the time daddy gets home from work for some more food before we try putting him down for the rest of the night/morning. He did spit up a little tonight though - he drank 1oz that was left from before and then I made another 3oz bottle... there was a lot of foam but from what I can tell he drank nearly 2oz before spitting up probably 1 (all over himself and me - fortunately none got on the couch!); I cleaned him off though and he ate maybe another half ounce before tiring out. I'm not too worried though - he had already met his ounces for the day (for his size, he needs about 15oz of the normal formula and about 12oz of the higher calorie stuff).
Since my last post on Wednesday, Jay's made quite a bit of improvement!
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| Jay's first wagon ride! When they discharge the kids from the pediatric unit, they wheel them out and down to the entrance in these wagons! How cute! |
Since he was eating fine on his own and keeping it down pretty well and gaining weight they let us go today - much to my pleasure as I was sick and tired of sleeping on the hospital pull-out furniture and just being there in general.
They have us feeding him Enfamil's Lipil formula, mixing it a special way so it's more concentrated giving him 27 calories per oz. He weighed 6lbs, 12.1oz this morning when we left - a huge improvement from the 6lbs, 1oz he came in at!
Because he has to be on the higher calorie formula, obviously I'm not breastfeeding. There's no telling how long he'll need to be on the higher calorie formula and my supply already seems to have depleted. I'm fine with it though so don't think I'm beating myself up over the fact I can't breastfeed him - I'm not and like I mentioned in a previous post, I kinda welcome the fact that we have to give him formula as with all the post-partum crap (I was dealing with the depression and emotional stuff of it to a lesser degree), the stress of breastfeeding wasn't helping it any.
He's been doing good since we got home though - he ate 2.5oz for his afternoon bottle before taking a 2.5hr nap IN THE BASSINET!!! It was a shocker to me too, as he fell asleep after eating and I put him down in there so I could at least do some stuff before he woke up... and Little Man was passed out! He's napping in there right now too - I expect him to wake up around the time daddy gets home from work for some more food before we try putting him down for the rest of the night/morning. He did spit up a little tonight though - he drank 1oz that was left from before and then I made another 3oz bottle... there was a lot of foam but from what I can tell he drank nearly 2oz before spitting up probably 1 (all over himself and me - fortunately none got on the couch!); I cleaned him off though and he ate maybe another half ounce before tiring out. I'm not too worried though - he had already met his ounces for the day (for his size, he needs about 15oz of the normal formula and about 12oz of the higher calorie stuff).
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Failure to Thrive
Those that follow me on Twitter and of course family and friends that are on Facebook already know about what's been going on this week... for the rest though, here's an update - thoughts and prayers for us and little Jay are much appreciated!
As I mentioned over the weekend, we switched Jay to formula as at his doctor's appointment on Friday showed that he had LOST weight rather than gained any and the doctor wanted us to supplement with formula to see if that would put the weight on him, thinking maybe my milk supply just wasn't doing the job.
Well first thing Monday morning we went in for a follow-up again just to see if the formula was doing the trick... well he hadn't lost anymore weight, but he didn't gain any either, holding steady at 6lbs, 1oz, which was the same as his hospital discharge weight after he was born.
Our doctor said that wasn't acceptable and had his receptionist call over and get us admitted at the hospital so they could look into why he wasn't gaining any weight despite us feeding him every 2-3hours.
Well, Monday we met with the pediatric doctor here who explained that it's possible Jay just has what is called "failure to thrive" meaning that for whatever reason he just "got behind" and hasn't seemed to catch up. He looked him over and said that Jay appears to be completely healthy - he was very impressed at his strength too, despite his small size, and how well he was already holding his head up! They ran another renal ultrasound on Jay just to check and make sure his left kidney (the enlarged one) hadn't grown any in the past 2 weeks, possibly putting pressure on his stomach causing it make him feel full when he actually isn't, and they drew some blood for some blood work tests too. They also had us feeding him formula via a bottle and then pumping the rest in via a pump hooked up to his feeding tube, as he needs to be eating 2.5oz per feeding to get in the calories he needs to grow (at home we were doing good if we could get him to take 1oz per feeding - getting anymore than that into him before he fell asleep or spit it up was rare!).
About 1am on Tuesday we had a bit of a scare too - Jay started spitting up and coughing up A TON of mucus! It was really scary as at one point it seemed like he was choking trying to cough it up and the nurses had to suction a ton of it out of his noes and the back of his throat... seemed like it was taking forever to get it to stop coming up and yeah... it was just really scary!
Tuesday morning we had the results of the ultrasound, which came back fine - his kidney hasn't grown or changed since so that's not the issue, and all the tests they did with his blood came back fine as well. They suggested we do this barium x-ray where they mix barium in with formula and feed it to him and watch via an x-ray to see how it's going through his system, down his throat, into his stomach and through to his intestines, making sure there's nothing blocking or obstructing the flow that would cause him not to eat much or spit up when he eats more than a certain amount. That came back fine though too - nothing abnormal, everything was going through him fine.
He kept his 11am feeding down pretty well but spit up most of the 2pm feeding. They hooked him to an IV bag with formula in it that is slowly continuously pumping the food into him via his feeding tube. He spit up a little at 8pm and again at 130am. I fell asleep around 3am and they said he spit up again at about 4am so they turned down the amount he was getting per hour from 20ml to 10ml and he hasn't spit up since (as of 930pm Wednesday night).
Today (Wednesday) we had a pediatric GI specialist come in and take a look at him to see if she could think of any other reason that what we've already ruled out that could be the cause for this. She said the same thing the pediatric doctor did - he seems perfectly healthy! She said it just seems he "got behind" and needs the push to get him to eat more and hold it down. She also increased his calorie intake from 24 to 27, so it seems like going back to breastfeeding won't be an option for us as he needs high calorie formula to catch up and push his growth.
The pediatric doctor said that for tonight they're going to keep him on the continuous feeding to see if he continues to grow more (he's gained 4oz since we've been here, now at 6lbs 5oz, up from 6lbs, 1oz) and then tomorrow we'll try giving him a bottle again and pumping in what he doesn't finish every 3 hours to see if he can stomach it now that he's been having it continuously going into his system for over 24hours. He said we'll be here at least through Friday if not through the weekend and it's possible they might send us home with his feeding tube still in him so we can give him a bottle and pump in the rest via a syringe - hopefully he does well enough though the next few days with the bottle though that we won't have to do that. He also said the feeding tube can last for several months before needing to be changed out, however he said he doesn't see Jay needing it for more than a few weeks after we go home if at all. He also said that they'll leave us alone as much as possible, meaning they won't be doing anymore tests or poking/prodding of Jay unless there's an absolute reason for it as he'd rather just see how he takes to the feedings.
I must say though, this pediatric doctor has been great! I like his approach of let's not do anything unnecessary when it comes to the testing and all that and he's very easy to talk to - I think when our family doctor retires (we believe he's in his early-mid 60s) I might try to see if we can get on under this guy.
Jay has been quite the little trooper too, taking everything so well! Sure, he cried when they put the feeding tube in (which was hard for me to watch too) and got a little fussy near the end of them drawing blood from his heel and at the end of the ultrasound and while they took the big scary x-ray of his belly, but for a barely 3 week year old he's been doing very well! He's been sucking on his binky quite a bit too, using that as his security item it seems, as Monday while everything was going on he was sucking on it like crazy while holding onto my finger. He had a little bit of a crying fit earlier - nothing seemed to comfort him for about 10 minutes, but then he was fine - I think he's just a little stressed, having to be back in the hospital and hooked up to a machine with nurses coming in throughout the day to check his vitals... I don't blame him for having a good cry - the situation sucks.
My mom's been coming up during the late morning and staying through the afternoon so I can get a nap and shower in (I've only been getting a few hours of sleep at night here in the hospital as I don't want to leave Jay alone up here - he's too little and only a few faces are really familiar to him) while hubby's been coming up after work in the evenings and staying til around midnight - fortunately he took this week off as his vacation from UPS as we were expecting Jay to be born this past weekend so he doesn't have to rush off to his night job this week.
So that's where we are with things - we'll be here at least through Friday, possibly through the weekend, all depending on how much Jay grows and how well he does with the bottle the next few days.
Thanks in advance for your prayers and thoughts - hopefully things continue to progress and get better and he's able to eat as much as he should be on his own!
As I mentioned over the weekend, we switched Jay to formula as at his doctor's appointment on Friday showed that he had LOST weight rather than gained any and the doctor wanted us to supplement with formula to see if that would put the weight on him, thinking maybe my milk supply just wasn't doing the job.
Well first thing Monday morning we went in for a follow-up again just to see if the formula was doing the trick... well he hadn't lost anymore weight, but he didn't gain any either, holding steady at 6lbs, 1oz, which was the same as his hospital discharge weight after he was born.
Our doctor said that wasn't acceptable and had his receptionist call over and get us admitted at the hospital so they could look into why he wasn't gaining any weight despite us feeding him every 2-3hours.
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| Jay with feeding tube & pump |
About 1am on Tuesday we had a bit of a scare too - Jay started spitting up and coughing up A TON of mucus! It was really scary as at one point it seemed like he was choking trying to cough it up and the nurses had to suction a ton of it out of his noes and the back of his throat... seemed like it was taking forever to get it to stop coming up and yeah... it was just really scary!
Tuesday morning we had the results of the ultrasound, which came back fine - his kidney hasn't grown or changed since so that's not the issue, and all the tests they did with his blood came back fine as well. They suggested we do this barium x-ray where they mix barium in with formula and feed it to him and watch via an x-ray to see how it's going through his system, down his throat, into his stomach and through to his intestines, making sure there's nothing blocking or obstructing the flow that would cause him not to eat much or spit up when he eats more than a certain amount. That came back fine though too - nothing abnormal, everything was going through him fine.
He kept his 11am feeding down pretty well but spit up most of the 2pm feeding. They hooked him to an IV bag with formula in it that is slowly continuously pumping the food into him via his feeding tube. He spit up a little at 8pm and again at 130am. I fell asleep around 3am and they said he spit up again at about 4am so they turned down the amount he was getting per hour from 20ml to 10ml and he hasn't spit up since (as of 930pm Wednesday night).
Today (Wednesday) we had a pediatric GI specialist come in and take a look at him to see if she could think of any other reason that what we've already ruled out that could be the cause for this. She said the same thing the pediatric doctor did - he seems perfectly healthy! She said it just seems he "got behind" and needs the push to get him to eat more and hold it down. She also increased his calorie intake from 24 to 27, so it seems like going back to breastfeeding won't be an option for us as he needs high calorie formula to catch up and push his growth.
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| Keeping calm in mommy's arms with his binky while continuously being fed via feeding tube. |
I must say though, this pediatric doctor has been great! I like his approach of let's not do anything unnecessary when it comes to the testing and all that and he's very easy to talk to - I think when our family doctor retires (we believe he's in his early-mid 60s) I might try to see if we can get on under this guy.
Jay has been quite the little trooper too, taking everything so well! Sure, he cried when they put the feeding tube in (which was hard for me to watch too) and got a little fussy near the end of them drawing blood from his heel and at the end of the ultrasound and while they took the big scary x-ray of his belly, but for a barely 3 week year old he's been doing very well! He's been sucking on his binky quite a bit too, using that as his security item it seems, as Monday while everything was going on he was sucking on it like crazy while holding onto my finger. He had a little bit of a crying fit earlier - nothing seemed to comfort him for about 10 minutes, but then he was fine - I think he's just a little stressed, having to be back in the hospital and hooked up to a machine with nurses coming in throughout the day to check his vitals... I don't blame him for having a good cry - the situation sucks.
My mom's been coming up during the late morning and staying through the afternoon so I can get a nap and shower in (I've only been getting a few hours of sleep at night here in the hospital as I don't want to leave Jay alone up here - he's too little and only a few faces are really familiar to him) while hubby's been coming up after work in the evenings and staying til around midnight - fortunately he took this week off as his vacation from UPS as we were expecting Jay to be born this past weekend so he doesn't have to rush off to his night job this week.
So that's where we are with things - we'll be here at least through Friday, possibly through the weekend, all depending on how much Jay grows and how well he does with the bottle the next few days.
Thanks in advance for your prayers and thoughts - hopefully things continue to progress and get better and he's able to eat as much as he should be on his own!
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