Tuesday, 8/2

Well, our NINE pound baby continues to move right along. He is SO chunky now! I love it. It looks like a lot of changes are going to start happening. Within the next week or two they will be doing a "milk scan" to see how much reflux he actually has. Ever since he "coded" they have been feeding him into his intestines so that nothing will be in his stomach to reflux up his esophagus. So using formula and a special dye they will be able to do x-rays to see how far up his esophagus formula goes when put in his stomach. After this test we'll meet with the surgeon and the neonatologist to discuss next steps in terms of feedings. And that's the key to coming home.

They are also going to try "sprinting" his oxygen. This means there will be times when they take him off completely to see how he does. They put him on 1.5 L today and he seemed to handle that okay.

All of this is exciting but it is also scary. It will be such a thrill to bring him home but I am also aware it will be a huge adjustment. This has been our life for the last 6 months. I remember right after Edison was born we bought a book on preemies and when they come home and the first line said, "At this point the NICU probably feels like home" and I looked at Martin and said, "Yeah, right". But it is so true. We felt at home at RWJ and then never thought we'd feel at home at CHOP, but we do. So...I still have a few weeks to prepare :) I'm going to tell the social worker she better start working on me!

One more thing that I have been forgetting to post over and over. I just wanted to share something my 6 year old nephew told my brother and sister-in-law in response to all of Dinky's feeding issues. He said that one day he wanted to go to medical school so he could invent a machine to help babies digest their food better. That's my Nye.