Jay welcomed September with a thud

Jay greeted the month of September with a THUD this morning as he fell off our bed and onto the floor =(

Jay playing with his blocks and Baby Einstein's turtle

Poor guy... that's the 3rd time he's gotten hurt this week, as he banged his head on the back of his changing table earlier this week while my mom was changing him (which is the 2nd time now that he's whacked his head while getting changed as he won't lay/sit still...). Then Wednesday night, while we were playing in his room with his blocks he was sitting up but fell over on me, his face smashing into my glasses and giving him a little scratch on the side of his face...

...and then this morning.

Every morning he wakes up between 930-1045am and usually lays in bed with me and we snuggle as he watches Sesame Street and mommy gets a little more shut-eye (he usually lays on my chest with my arms around him or next to me with my arm around him). This morning though, he was laying next to me and got away. I heard a loud thud, opened my eyes and as he started screaming it registered that he was no longer in the bed. I sprang up out of the bed and ran over to the other side and there he was, face down on our laminate floor, crying at the top of his lungs. I quickly picked him up, checking to make sure there wasn't any blood. His teeth were still intact, his nose didn't seem broken, I felt his ribs and they all seemed okay and once he calmed down (he was snuggled up on me bawling for a good minute or 2) I bent his legs, knees, arms, elbows and wrists to make sure they didn't hurt and weren't broken or sprained either.

I also called hubby to see if he thought I should take him to get checked out - just as he said the time Jay whacked his head on the shelf above his changing table, he reminded me that babies fall time to time and that as long as I checked him out and he seemed to be okay then not to worry about it, just keep an eye on him and see if he behaves like his normal self. I called my mom to see if she knew what signs I should keep an eye out for and Googled as well. No vomiting or seizures and I kept him up for a couple hours before letting him take his nap just in case he had a concussion or anything. He was a little clingy the rest of the day but other than that he seemed like his normal self, so that's good!

Fortunately our bed is only like 3 feet high, so it could have been worse. I think he was just more scared than anything as he's never fallen like that before. Well I guess you could say he learned why we don't let him get close to the edge and always pull him back when he crawls/rolls too close to it! Gotta say though, I was pretty scared at the time though and felt sooooo bad for it happening as it could have been prevented.

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!

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!

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).

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.

Jay with feeding tube & pump

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.

Keeping calm in mommy's arms with his
binky while continuously being fed via
feeding tube.

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!

37 week appointment & hospital growth ultrasound

Today I had my 37 week check-up today and the NST stress test looked good, as did his placenta and fluid. Jay's still head down and in the correct position too, with his fundal height measuring 36cm, and heartbeat was in the mid-upper 130s. I mentioned this glob of mucus that was on the tissue when I wiped the other day and the doctor agreed with me that it was probably the mucus plug.

I got home from the clinic and the hospital called me, requesting I come in early this afternoon for the growth ultrasound, so I went before the weather got bad. Felt kinda bad as hubby couldn't get off work at such short notice or take a long enough lunch break as he just started a new position at work today, however he told me to go ahead and go since it took so long for them to get it scheduled. Kinda wished he had been able to come though, given what we found out...

I'm soooo confused though!

At the 30 week scan the hospital did, Jay was measuring a bit bigger than average overall. Then at the 35 week scan my clinic did, everything was showing right around on target, minus his femurs, give or take a week. Today he's measuring small - his gestational age is showing him to be measuring about 34weeks instead of 37 and his femur is still showing to be about 32-33 weeks! They estimated his weight as being 5lbs, 12oz - only a 7oz gain in the last 2 weeks (he was about 4lbs 13oz at 30 weeks).

They said it could be a number of things - he could just be on the shorter/smaller size as no one in my family is taller than 6ft, they said it could be that I have an infection that may be causing his growth to have slowed down that much, and then they said there is the possibility that it could be Downs Syndrome (we didn't do the additional testing for it as I'm not at high risk and it doesn't run in our families and it's not like there's anything you can really do about it anyway).

Honestly, I think it's this low-carb diet they have me on, as that's the *only* thing that's changed in the last 7 weeks, although the high risk doctor I met with for this ultrasound said it shouldn't have had *that* much of an effect on him... if it was Downs they can usually tell by the face though, right?

The doctor said I could have an amnio if I wanted, but hubby and I don't see what the point in that would be - if he has Downs, he has Downs... can't really do anything about it - even the doctor said the only point would be to confirm or deny it and help us "prepare."  She also said I could get some blood testing done to see if I have any infections that could be affecting him so I think I might do that, as if I do have any infections obviously we'd want to get that cleared up anyway...

As far as his kidneys...

At first they couldn't tell if it was fluid or a double kidney, but the doctor looked in closer and said it looks like fluid and said it's not uncommon for that happening with little boys. She said there's not really much we can do about it until he's born, which then they'll check and make sure it's functioning correctly or not and go from there. She said they prefer the liquid to be 10% or less and his was at about 11% so she was going to mention to my doctor when she talked to her about maybe having me deliver next week at 38weeks, meaning they would induce me and Jay would be 2 weeks early.

Aside from the kidney and his growth having slowed down they said the rest of his vitals look good...

Can I be done already? I'm tired of all the doctor appointments and the frustrations that keep coming up =/

36 week appointment

Today I had my week 36 exam with the stress test, ultrasound, and meeting with the doctor.


The stress test took longer than normal today - they first hooked me up and we couldn't really hear his heartbeat that well despite the fact that he was clearly moving around as we could hear that! Anyways, she let it go, despite the heartbeat being faint. Apparently it didn't pick up on the doppler well enough and after 20 minutes and showing the doctor, they kept me hooked up longer, moving the heartbeat monitor around where we found his heartbeat a lot better than before. They kept me hooked up for about 10 minutes more before sending me over to ultrasound.

Today's ultrasound was a little different as in addition to checking the placenta and fluid she was checking for various "exercises" and movements. We had to wait for him to do a breathing exercise, having me lay on my side to see if that would get him to do it - she said some babies take awhile with that one in there, fortunately it didn't take him too long once I changed positions.

I met with the doctor...

Apparently the ultrasound, while everything else we looked for today showed as being fine, one of his kidneys appeared larger than the other. The doctor said that in most cases, it could just be that he hadn't peed yet so the kidney was full, however it isn't uncommon for boy babies to have problems with their kidney's not functioning or emptying correctly. She said that since this is 2 abnormalities they've found within a week they want me to see a high risk doctor at the hospital's maternal fetal medicine ward and get my next ultrasound there so they can check on this as well as his femur which we were going to check on again next week anyway.

Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed - it seems like it's just been one thing after another... UTI's, an infection, gestational diabetes and all that annoyance... now this growth thing with his femur and possible enlarged kidney... ugh! And I'm so sick of going the doctor so much too...


YOU CAN COME OUT AT ANYTIME AFTER THIS WEEKEND, JAY!!!!

They put the request in at the hospital while I was there and was going to have my insurance approve it and then call me in the next day or so to schedule the appointment for later this week or early next week. She said if it's early next week I can call and cancel one of my appointments at the clinic next week, as we won't be needing 2 ultrasounds anyway. 

I did notice this sharp, shooting pain the past few nights which felt like him literally bouncing on my cervix. It only lasts a second or so and I can feel him "bouncing" when it happens... boy does it hurt! It's a sharp, shooting pain... he kept doing it last night while I was sitting on the couch. I Googled "baby bouncing on cervix" and apparently it's a pretty common thing, feeling exactly like how I described it. I mentioned it to my doctor today too, just in case, and she gave a laugh and a grin assuring me that that's perfectly normal for this stage and in most cases it's just him trying to "drop down" a bit to get ready to come out.

35 week appointment & growth ultrasound

So today I had my 35 week appointment.

It started out just like all my other appointments, with us doing the 20 minute stress test. Jay wasn't as fussy about it this time, as I think he's gotten used to it happening, but he did squirm and kick/punch a little bit but he eventually seemed to give up and went back to sleep for a bit.

Then we had our growth ultrasound to see how much he weighs and how he's measuring.

I noticed when the ultrasound tech was measuring his head that it was measuring a little big as the gestational age the machine gave for it was 36+6. The tech also explained that the "white stuff" we were seeing was his hair, saying that he has quite a bit of hair already! Apparently he's taking after daddy, as daddy has a bit head and I guess when he was born he had so much hair they joked about him needing a haircut! lol...

We didn't get a lot of photos this time around, as he doesn't have that much space so he's kinda squished in there and getting a clear view of his face is a bit tricky - she did get part of the side though!

Right now they said he weighs 5lbs, 6oz and overall he is measuring on target for his gestational age and is measuring in the 32nd percentile.

However... the doctor did go over with me that his femur's measuring a bit small - the machine showed it being about 32weeks when we're in week 35... she said it could be nothing but maybe machine error and so we're going check again in 2 weeks just to make sure. She said it is possible that maybe he's just going to be on the shorter side, inheriting my "shorter" family genes instead of hubby's "tall" genes too. But we won't know for sure until he's born and they measure him outside the womb. She said don't worry about it for now - she thinks it's a bit strange too that we're just now noticing this after how many ultrasounds that we've had.

So that's pretty much it for today - said my glucose numbers are looking fantastic so she's not too concerned about that, just keep doing what I'm doing. And clearly the diet and stuff has worked in slowing his growth down as he's now on target and not measuring all big like he was 6-7 weeks ago.

One thing's for sure - even if he does have shorter legs, he sure knows how to pack a punch with them as it feels like he's constantly beating up my uterus! lol...

Not the test results we were expecting...

So you remember how 2 weeks ago I went to doctor for an emergency exam because of some strange discharge I was having? And how last week I updated that I got a call that my test results were fine?

Well... I didn't realize we were waiting to hear about 2 different test results - the urine test results or whatever and a culture test results.

Last week they called regarding the urine testing, which came back fine.

Today I got a call regarding the culture test results.

Turns out I have a bacterial infection called Mycoplasma, which the nurse I spoke with said is a very common urinary bacterial infection that most everyone gets and because it's so common it's rarely treated or even really considering to be much of anything.

However... because I'm pregnant, it needs to be treated because if it's left untreated it can cause early contractions and preterm labor - neither are things we want.

They put me on this z-pack type medication called Azithromycin, with is a category B drug, which means it's been safely tested on animals all with no results of birth defects or anything else that could be bad for pregnancy. Doing research of my own online, I also found that there's been a few studies done on pregnant women in various trimesters and aside from the one that decided to terminate the pregnancy early, all babies were carried to term and have had no defects or complications - the ones they followed up with a year later are all doing fine.

I have to take 6 doses of this medicine - 2 right away, and then 1 a day for the following 4 days, and then refrain from sex for a week, followed by another week of only using condoms. While it's a common bacterial infection and not an STD, it is transmitted like an STD, as you pass it back and forth via sex.

So... this means hubby has to get on the prescription too!

My OB/GYN office said he could see a regular doctor if he had one or just go to an immediate care clinic and explain to them what I have and that odds are he has it too, but because I'm pregnant he needs to get checked out and treated if he has it as well so we're not passing it back and forth.

He went to one of the local immediate care chain's clinics, explained it to them and... they told him they can't do that there - he has to go to a hospital for that.

Say what?!

My OB/GYN seemed pretty confident and sure that he could just go in there and get it done easily (he doesn't have a regular doctor). He wants me to call my doctor's office again tomorrow and see if they can't just write him a prescription for it, since odds are that I have it, he has it too, however I told him I doubt they'll do that - they don't have any of his medical information on file and aside from him coming to the pregnancy appointments with me and his name being the primary on our insurance they don't know him as they've never seen/checked him out before.

Fortunately, his parents are good friends with a doctor - we asked them and they said they would call and ask him tomorrow to see if he could help us out any too... hopefully we can get him on the prescription quickly without having to deal with the hassle that is the hospital (plus hubby said hospitals are expensive and I know they take forever too and with him working 2 jobs, there's not really time for him to waste sitting around for someone at the hospital to fit him in whenever).

I might just call one of the nearby immediate care clinics and talk to them over the phone about it, stating my OB/GYN said it could be done there, as who knows - maybe the person he talked to just didn't know or understand what he was talking about.

So keep us in your thoughts and prayers - that we're able to get this infection cleared up, that hubby can get on the medication for it without too much of a hassle, and that the medication and infection doesn't affect Jay at all. We have his anatomical survey ultrasound on Monday (where they count his fingers and toes, get a good look at his spine, heart and brain and just make sure he's developing everything correctly), so if it is affecting him, hopefully we'll be able to tell when we go in.

A scare

So I had a little bit of a scare this past week.

If you're a guy and/or don't like TMI-pregnancy related stuff, stop reading this post right now.



There - you've been warned.



Anyways, continuing, I've been wearing panty liners the last few weeks due to the increase in cervical mucus flowing out of me (which I read is normal during pregnancy). I noticed Monday morning when I first went to the bathroom that the liner was stained a little bit of a light brownish color, kinda like at the end of your period when you know you're basically done. I didn't think too much of it. Tuesday morning I wake up, and same thing - overnight it seemed the liner had gotten stained with this light brownish color. I put in a new one and go about my day, starting to wonder what's going on. Later that night, I'm vacuuming and doing some basic cleaning (ie: dusting, putting away, dishes, etc) and before bed I go to the bathroom and notice that the liner is again, stained a light brown color, only this time I was feeling a bit sweaty from all the vacuuming and moving around I had been doing - I felt like I had leaked a little and thought maybe that's what it was. Still, I wondered a bit and decided to call the doctor's office the next day (Wednesday).

I tell them about it, they ask if I've had any significant pain or cramping or anything and I tell them I haven't experienced anything out of the ordinary (as with pregnancy a little pain and discomfort here and there is normal and I hadn't been experiencing anything I hadn't already prior to this). They said it sounded like I might have an infection and wanted me to come in the next day (Thursday) so they could do some tests and find out.

So I'm a little nervous now, as when I mentioned to my mom they said it might be an infection her response was "well that's not really good either..." and I started reading stuff I found on Google that wasn't making me feel any better. I mention to hubby I'm going to the doctor when he gets home from work - at first he had a bit of a worried, panic look on his face, but when I explained and told him they thought it might be an infection he was just like "oh okay" and didn't say much else. Talking with a friend though, she pointed out that if it was anything to seriously worry about, they wouldn't make me wait overnight to come in - they'd have me go to the hospital right away if it was major cause for concern and since the stain is a light brownish color and not red, odds are it's nothing too serious as light brown tends to be "old blood" that's just now coming out and bright red/pink is usually something to worry about.

So I go to the doctor Thursday morning, they have me pee in a cup and they do a vaginal exam and swab just to check. They said there was no blood in my urine and no signs of a UTI but they were going to send it off to be tested just in case. They also said my PH levels were fine too and showing no signs of anything abnormal. She noticed a little bit of white stuff down there, but didn't think it was anything to be too concerned about. She also said my cervix wasn't dilated, and that at our appointment the week before the placenta and my cervical length were both great. We checked and Jay's heartbeat (once she was able to find it and count it, as he was moving around like usual, not staying in one spot and not making it easy for them to count, lol) was just around 160bpm which is in the normal range (he's always been around 160-180bpm). She asked me if I had done anything different recently and I mentioned the prenatal workout I had started and done twice so far. She asked if we had sex over the weekend and I thought we might have (we do it so little lately due to my lack of a sex drive thanks to pregnancy that I have a hard time remembering how long it's been since we last did it), so she said it's possible that with that and the workout, something up in there might have gotten bumped and knocked loose some old blood and that's what I'm seeing on the liner.

She said to refrain from sex and my workout until we get the test results back (which is early this coming week), but that there really doesn't seem to be much cause for concern or worry at this point, just that I should keep an eye on it and if it changes color to a pink or reddish or the amount increases then to let them know.

I mentioned my appointment on Facebook and my mother in law asked what was going on and I told her the shortened version - she said she had something like that happen throughout some of her pregnancies too (a light brown stain on liners) but that there wasn't really much of a concern at all. So that makes me feel a little better.

Have any of you ladies had anything like this happen to you?