Finally, it seems we are getting somewhere! (I better not say that too loud though). This week has been a big and busy week for Brody. This week the central focus was checking on Brody's digestive system to make sure nothing is wrong anatomically so that we could proceed with feeds. On Tuesday, Brody took a field trip down to the first floor for some X-rays. They injected a dye into his bottom and took a series of X-rays to make sure there weren't any issues with his bowels. No issues there! Thursday he went for round 2 of his tests and made a field trip back down to the first floor for an upper GI. Here they would feed a dye through his feeding tube and watch it navigate its way through his digestive system. They would conduct X-rays every 30 minutes for a couple of hours to monitor and see where it went. No issues there! We had the green light to start feeds. He started late Friday on his fat free formula and has been tolerating them well. Everyday they are able to take them up more. This week has marked the milestone of being back up to birth weight! Hopefully as we increase his feeds more and more, the weight will pile on. He isn't pooping yet which we need him to do at this point. It's difficult because we need him to poop, but he doesn't have much in his system to make poop. He is being fed less than one ounce every three hours (he is still getting his basic nutrition through his IVs until he gets to full feeds). Hopefully we can get everything moving in the next day or so. Thursday was also a big day because he got rid of his breathing tube! Yay! He has tolerated being off it very well. He is currently on a C-Pap which basically shoots oxygen up his nose. They do this to help him transition better off of the breathing machine. It's weird to think you have to "teach" your baby to breathe. They have already been able to take these levels down a bit which is great. His other excitement came on Friday when he decided to get rid of his PIC line. This was his IV lines that went into his leg. What they think happened is that he started kicking his feet and got the lines stuck between his toes and basically pulled it out. For those keeping record, Brody has managed to get rid of three chest tubes, a breathing tube and now his PIC line all by himself. That evening during rounds when they reported he got rid of his PIC line all the doctors were shocked. They had never heard of a baby losing his own PIC line before. It's really quite comical and we all had a good laugh. Overall, an amazing week of progress. I hope and pray we keep moving in this direction. I always get a little nervous when we start moving forward for that fear of a set back, but I am trying really hard to just focus on being thankful for where we are in this moment.
On a completely different note, it is back to school time. I am finding it really weird not being in that groove of getting ready for school and not being at work. I even have started to miss it a little. It just doesn't feel like summer is over. I think I have just skipped summer all together. I sat down and thought about it. I have only been out of a hospital for 10 days since June. I was admitted to the hospital in early June and was there for two and a half weeks. I was released and 10 days later we checked in to have Brody and have been here ever since. Even had everything been "normal," I still don't, know if I would be ready. I don't think any mom is ready to leave their baby and head back to work. The second I take one look at Brody, I miss it a lot less. This kid is my world and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else, mentally or physically, but here. It has now been 4 weeks since I last held him and I am struggle to be patient. We still need a little less going on, but I know my time is getting close.
Brody's new C-Pap machine comes with a fancy hat.
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