Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pediatrician Appointment today

First off, Tank is 4 months old today!!!!!
Today we took Frankie to see his lovely pediatrician, Dr. Terrill. She's such a great lady! He had lots of smiles for her! Let me just summarize what we're going to do/what we talked about:

-Feedings: The dreaded feedings.... Today, Frankie's feeds went up to 102ml over 4 hours. He is getting 34ml/hr for 3 hours and then a 1 hour break. 30ml = 1 oz. So, he is getting a little more than an ounce an hour, but his breast milk is still fortified so that he is getting accurate calories to grow. What we need to start doing is get his feeds to more of a bolus feed. A bolus feed would be the entire feed over a 30-60 minute period, as if he were taking a bottle. Joe and I are going to work on this slowly, very slowly, so that he doesn't get too much volume too quickly. We have to slowly stretch his tummy. As for baby food, not just yet. I am totally bummed about this. I wanted to try so bad! More than anything, I want this child off this damn NG tube. Spoon feeding is just one step closer to that. I know we still have a ways, but I really wanted to give it a go. We will reevaluate next month when we see her on the baby food situation. I am still trying to give him a bottle. Yesterday, I switched back to the Born Free bottle instead of the Dr. Brown's. He latched on great and took a tiny bit. It's just when he gets the milk in his mouth he kind of panics like, what the hell is this?! I am also doing "tastings' with his binkie where I dip his binkie in breast milk and then he sucks on it. I also am still giving him tastings from a cup. On Sunday, I bought him a sippy cup. I have been giving it to him empty so that he can become familiar to it and also chew on it! He's been chewing on his thumbs and fists a ton, which leads me to the next topic!

-Teeth: Frankie has been gnawing on his thumbs and fists lately and has been a bit cranky. Dr. Terrill took a look at his gums and sure enough, on the bottom you can see the two little slits where teeth will one day pop out. He may have these slits for a few months or a few weeks before teeth come out. Each child is different, but there's definitely something going on in there!

-Weight: Frankie now weighs in at a whopping 10lbs 14.5oz! Go Frankie! He is still small for his age and doesn't even make it on the growth chart with all the other babies :( but for him, he's doing swell! I'm excited that he's packing on the pounds (more like ounces)! Grow Frankie, grow!

-Sleep: Frankie sleeps GREAT, at night. So not complaining about that! But, during the day, he doesn't get adequate sleep. He should be taking 4-5 naps a day and they should be at least 45 minutes. If it's less than 45 minutes it's not "good rest". Frankie usually takes one good nap for about an hour or so, but that's it. Otherwise they're little cat naps. I am going to start getting him on a routine and laying him down before he's just too exhausted. Dr. Terrill made a good point... if he's yawning, we've already waited too long to put him down and he may be over tired and we missed our window of opportunity for a good nap. The key is to lay him down before he's overly tired. I'm making a schedule now! It's hard because usually the nap schedule coincides with the feeding schedule.... well, he's not on a bottle, so it's tougher. We'll make it work!

-Overall: Frankie looks great! He's a strong boy who is otherwise developing normally besides his cute belly! We go back to see her next month and reevaluate everything again!

Next appointments:
Tuesday Jan. 24th- ENT: we are going to the ENT for the first visit before his hearing test. That's all this is. No ear, nose or throat issues. Just need a newborn (well, not so newborn anymore) hearing test.
Thursday Jan. 26th- Surgery: Checking up on his O and hernias.
Thursday Feb. 9th- Newborn medicine: This doctor (Dr.Phil, no joke) rocks! He took care of Frankie while in the NICU and we will go see him to follow up on feedings and oxygen and such.
Tuesday Feb. 21st- Pediatrician
Tuesday Feb, 28th- Cardiology- Check on PPHN and ASD.

That's all for now! I will update whenever I can and definitely will after each appointment. Thanks for all your love, prayers and support! It's very helpful to us three! Love to you all! Now for some cuteness...

Oh yeah! Bustin' some moves!

Frankie moves so much in his sleep! He was wedged in between his bumpers before Joe moved him!

Sleeping on dad, too cute!

I don't even have a caption for this, besides, HAHAHA! Too sweet.

Sleepy face, just waking up.

Short nap after a fit.

Starring at the tv like it's nobodies business! LOVE this picture!



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