Tiny hand

Tiny hand
November 20, 2010 (one day old)

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Trip to the ER avoided...for now (Part two)

My intention was to split that looooong last entry up into two parts and continue the story from Tuesday morning on, but I never got around to it yesterday.

Everyone slept well Monday night.  Cayden, despite his intermittently noisy breathing, did just fine again.  He slept for two good stretches of at least four hours each time and drank plenty of milk each time he woke.  Dr. Stanford called to check on him Tuesday morning and we reported that he seemed about the same, maybe even slightly better on the intensity of his wheezing.  She was encouraged to hear that and said the likelihood of all of this being a precursor to a cold was slim to none, and the chances of the chemical pneumonia (the irritation of his throat and vocal chords) developing into much more serious bacterial pneumonia were highly unlikely, as the critical window for both of these is the first 24 hours.  If he didn't get worse in the first 24 hours, he probably wouldn't.  So that was a HUGE relief!

She also said she had been discussing things with a pediatric gastroenterologist.  When she told him the story, he replied, "Oh, yeah.  Just a bad episode of reflux.  No big deal.  Wouldn't worry too much", like he sees it every day.  Oh, wait.  He probably does see it every day!    So that was reassuring to hear from a specialist.  We will likely need to follow up with him or another GI doc in the future to monitor his reflux.  He can also guide us more precisely on how to wean Cayden off of the Simply Thick and Prevacid, so that will be helpful.  He also mentioned the possibility of him having a hiatal hernia which may be worsening his reflux and that we may want to consider doing an upper GI scope at some point, but not any time soon.

It felt like a dark cloud had been lifted and the rest of Tuesday didn't seem so worrisome.  Cayden was still coughing and wheezing, but we felt much better about his diagnosis.  He ate well all day Tuesday and slept well Tuesday night.

One thing I forgot to mention about his first doctor visit on Monday was his weight at that time: 8 lbs. 12 oz.

Wednesday afternoon, we had our first visit from the home nurse from the Tri-County Health Department's Special Infants Project.  She weighed and measured Cayden (his weight was up to 8 lbs. 14.5 oz) and assessed his developmental milestone achievements.  Overall, she said he looks amazing and is doing phenomenally well given his start in life.  I think she stopped just short of calling him a miracle baby, which in my mind, he is!  We will see her another 10 or so times over the next year so she can closely monitor his growth and development.  I am so happy to have this service!  As much as we like our pediatrician, I just don't feel she is doing enough monitoring for a preemie.  She seems to have more of the mindset to treat him like a 'normal' term baby, with visits spaced out every three months from here on out.  Combining the services of this home health nurse, the occupational therapist, and our pediatrician gives us much fuller coverage and that makes me feel like we'll have the best chance of him developing to his full potential.

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