Happy first birthday, Oliver!

Oliver is 1 today.  ONE!  What a year it's been.  Oliver now weighs 17 pounds and 13 ounces and is 26 inches long.  I know this because he had to go to the doctor yesterday because he's sick :(   I was really worried that he was going to spend his birthday in the hospital, so I'm glad it didn't end up that way.  The doctor yesterday was worried about how fast he was breathing and how high his heart rate was, so she sent him for a chest xray.  Luckily, there's no pneumonia.  Unfortunately, she believes it's just a viral thing that needs to run it's course.  She put him back on 24 hour oxygen, which is a pain, but she said this will pretty much guarantee he'll be approved for his Synagis shots this fall.  He hasn't gotten sick nearly as many times today as he had the past few days, so I'm really hoping we're in the home stretch.

This comes just 2 weeks after we finally got his feeds back on track after his gtube surgery.  The first couple of weeks after surgery were really rough.  His reflux was at it's worst, we had had to slow down his feeds and give him smaller feeds.  Not easy when his dietitian wanted to increase rate and quantity.  Finally, we were doing well with it, and he gets sick.  Still, no regrets on the surgery.  It's such a relief to not have to constantly worry about the ng tube any more.  The site is still bleeding occasionally, which worries me, but I'm told it's normal.  He likes to pull on the tube, and of course, chew on it.  He's chewing on everything these days, but still no teeth.

Oliver is sitting up great, and rolls from his front to his back immediately, but is still not rolling from back to front or trying to crawl.  While his occupational therapist isn't worried, she does want to work more on encouraging these things.  He is having none of that.  He wants nothing to do with tummy time, or laying on his stomach at all.  He's eating purees really, really well, at least he was 3 days ago.  Fingers crossed he'll still want them when he's well again.

Nathaniel is such a great big brother.  He loves getting to take Oliver a toy or his blankie, or giving him his paci.  Pretty much any time Oliver makes any noise, actually, Nathaniel is trying to stick that paci in his mouth. 

We had planned on taking the boys to dinner at the aquarium tonight for Oliver's birthday dinner, but with him being sick we're stuck in the house.  We had also planned on him getting to try cake for the first time, but that's also getting scrapped.  We'll try again next week.  We let Oliver open his gifts from my sister and her family last night, and he really enjoyed playing with the ribbons.  Nathaniel was more than happy to help him out with the rest of it.

Hopefully he'll be all well again soon, and we can have a birthday celebration for him.  Mama loves you, buddy.  It's been a crazy year, but you've come through it with flying colors.  You're my little fighter, and I'm so, so proud of you.

Gastrostomy at 10 months

Oliver had his Gtube surgery today. Here he is getting ready. 

The surgeon, Dr Partick, said everything went well and he expects recovery in a few days. We're still waiting on a room, but just wanted to post that he's doing ok. He's not happy, but he's ok. 

NG Tube vs G Tube

It's been too long since the last update, mainly because every time I attempt, my laptop shuts down.  Anyway, Oliver is now 10 1/2 months actual, almost 7 months adjusted.  As of today he weighs 17 lbs, 3 oz and is a little over 25 inches long.  And today, we saw a surgeon to discuss removing the NG tube and placing a Gtube.

We've struggled with this decision, but I think it's finally time.  Back in April, we returned home to Illinois for a visit, and Oliver was rocking his bottle feedings.  He was back up to 50% by bottle, and I really thought we were on our way to removing the tube.  But as soon as we returned to CO, Oliver got an ear infection, and started completely refusing the bottle.  I don't blame him, I'm sure it hurt to suck.  However, in the two weeks it took him to fully get over that, he forgot how to suck on a bottle.  His therapist said that he was right at the age where babies' suck goes from being reflexive to learned, and he probably did just forget.  We've been working on it the last two months, but he's just not getting it.  After a week of him pulling the NG tube out multiple times a day, coughing it up, spitting it up, and it getting clogged, I'm done.  I'm ready to see my precious boy's face with no tubes and tape.

Having a G tube will actually be safer than the NG.  With the NG, the big fear is it going into his lungs instead of his stomach.  That could happen when it's being placed, or when he pulls/coughs it out.  The G tube does require surgery to place it, which comes with a risk, but after that there's only a very slight risk of infection; much better than a risk of aspiration.  David and I did our research, and decided that we didn't want him to have a nissen fundoplication done at this time.  That is where the top of the stomach is tightened so that there is less reflux and spitting up.  There can be complications from it, and it can make it nearly impossible for him to throw up it he is sick, as well as not being able to even burp.  The surgeon agreed with us, saying that Oliver is definitely not a usual case of a preemie on a feeding tube failing to thrive.  Oliver's surgery will be next week, we're just waiting on the scheduler to give us a call.

Doctors and Nathaniel's birthday

Both boys have had doctors' appointments in the past week.  Nathaniel had both a trip to the doctor for an ear infection, and his two year check up.  Thankfully, the ear infection is all better, AND the two year appointment doesn't come with vaccinations, yay!  Nathaniel weighs 29 lbs and is 35 inches tall.  That puts him at the 50% for weight and the 70% for height, which is a bit of a change from his one year appointment, where he was 90% for weight and less than 50% for height.

Oliver had both an eye exam and his six month appointment, which was two weeks late due to his ROP surgery.  His eyes look great, and the eye doctor thought that they'd only need to check one more time before declaring the surgery a success.  They believe 90-95% of his vision has been saved.  Oliver needed vaccinations and blood work at his appointment, and weighed in at 12 1/2 lbs.  His doctor is very happy with how he's progressing developmentally.  Now if we could just get him to eat.  Dr Rosenburg is ok with us not rushing into Gtube surgery.  We're going to start occupational therapy for him to get help with bottle feeding.  They also suggested we try spoon feeding him some cereal.

It's so frustrating how completely different raising these two boys is.  Nathaniel was exclusively breastfed for 6 months, at which time we introduced solids via Baby Led Weaning.  He never had purees, and we never gave him rice cereal as there's no nutritional value to it at all.  Oliver only takes formula thickened with rice cereal by mouth, and it sounds like he'll probably eat purees for quite a while before trying to eat real food.  Nathaniel wasn't allowed to watch tv until about 15 months, and then it was just one show.  Oliver eats better if he's watching the tv, so tv it is.  By 11 weeks Nathaniel was sleeping in his crib, but Oliver has reflux so he has to be upright during and after his feeds.  Everything we thought we had worked out with Nathaniel and would be easier the second time went right out the window.  And more than anything, there is nothing more frustrating than a hungry baby who either can not or will not eat.  I really hope we make some headway with the OT.

Yesterday was Nathaniel's second birthday.  We had planned on taking him to the zoo this weekend to celebrate, but a huge winter storm (spring snow storm?) rolled through.  We thought about the Children's Museum, but we weren't sure that was the best place to take Oliver.  I was so disappointed that I didn't have any way to make Nathaniel's birthday special, and then I remembered how much he had enjoyed the restaurant at the aquarium that we went to the first time we visited Denver.  Nathaniel loved it!  We went really early to make sure we could get an aquarium side table, and I'm so thankful we did.  20 minutes later and the place was packed.  Nathaniel would get scared each time one of the bigger fish swam towards the glass, but braved through.  At 6 every night they have divers swimming dressed as mermaids, and he thought that was so neat.  I'm so glad we were able to do something really fun for his birthday.

My sister, brother in law, and niece visited last weekend, and stayed to help me while David traveled on business this week.  It was so good to have people to talk to.  Staying at home with Oliver is very isolating.  Since we just moved here, I don't have any friends to invite over, and even if I did we wouldn't be comfortable having other people in the house around him.  And with it still being cold and flu season, and RSV being so bad this year, I really don't want to take him out anywhere.  Plus, for two weeks after surgery his eyes were dilated, so we couldn't even sit on the porch or go for a walk when the weather was nice.  So it was really, really nice to have someone here to hang out with for a while.  Nate hit the slopes up at Copper Mountain for his birthday, so I think they had a good trip.  I'm so excited we'll get to see them again in less than a month when we head back to Illinois in April. 

ROP surgery

Oliver had surgery on Friday (March 8, David's birthday) to correct and prevent any further retinapathy.  Using a laser, the ophthalmologist scarred the area of his retina that did not have blood vessels running through it.  This prevents bad blood vessels from forming in those areas.  He believes that Oliver will have 90% of his vision, in comparison to the 40% that he would have had had they done surgery at the beginning instead of using the Avastin injections.  The surgery increases his risk for having near sightedness, so in a couple of months he'll start getting checked for needing glasses. 

Surgery went very well, and we were happy with both the nurses and the anesthesia team working on him.  It took about an hour and a half, and when it was done first Dr Oliver came out to let us know how it went from his standpoint, and then the anesthesiologist came out to let us know that everything went perfect from his point of view, as well.  Of course, everyone just loved Oliver.

We finally got into a hospital room for the night around 3 pm.  David had to leave immediately to go pick up Nathaniel, but we had a surprise visitor, Oliver's NICU nurse, Veronica.  It was great to see her, and she couldn't believe how big he had gotten.  David and Nathaniel came back out to the hospital to have dinner with me in the caf, but Nathaniel wasn't allowed up on the floor.  Oliver and I had a very long night in the hospital, and first thing the next morning a winter storm swept through.  David had a hard time getting back out to pick us up, and I had to tell the nurse and doctor to get on with it and get his discharged, we were leaving before the roads got any worse!

Nathaniel just loves the snow.  "NO!" as he likes to call it.  We've let him play out in it a few times now, and there's always a meltdown when it's time to come back in.  He cracks us up daily.  When he wants me to pick him up, but I'm busy with something else, David always asks him, "will you come see me?"  So now when Nathaniel wants to be picked up at all, instead of saying "up" he says "come see me."  It's so cute.  Milk is "munk," puzzles are "puz," and Oliver is "Ober."  I just love it.  His vocabulary continues to grow, and he's starting to repeat everything we say.  Time to reel in the road rage!

Nathaniel thinks that Oliver needs to be covered by every blanket in the house, and can't stand for him to not have a paci in his mouth at all times.  We have to really watch him, but he sure loves being a big brother.

6 months actual

Tomorrow Oliver turns 6 months old.  To celebrate Nathaniel's 6 month, we started letting him play with food, banana and avocado.  For Oliver's... nothing is changing.  Sorry buddy.  Oliver currently weighs 11 lbs and 11 oz.  And this outfit... is 0-3 months!  We've moved out of newborn size.  Thankfully my sister loaded us up on snap front 0-3 outfits, because we used almost exclusively zip front on Nathaniel.  We have more than enough now, and I'm hoping by the time he hits 6 months clothes he'll be off the monitors.

Oliver's ROP surgery got cancelled at the last minute last week.  It's currently rescheduled for March 8.  We're still assuming it'll just be one night in the hospital.  The actual surgery really doesn't require any recovery as it's all done by laser, but he'll need to be closely monitored coming off of the ventilator. 

It's still a huge struggle to get Oliver to eat.  We fight with it all day, trying to get him to take just 10 more mls after he refuses the bottle, and then at night we catch him up via the feeding tube.  We were really hoping he'd be off of it by now.  I'm surprised his pediatrician hasn't pushed for a permanent g-tube.

Oliver is smiling a lot more, and talking to us. Hi Oliver He just stares at Nathaniel when he's around.  After Nathaniel being home three straight days, Oliver did almost nothing but sleep Tuesday.  I'm sure he was thinking, "ahhhh, peace and quiet!"

We finally got a real substantial snow fall out here, and David's office was closed on Monday due to it.  Nathaniel loves the snow, or "noes" as he calls it.  Nathaniel's snow day  He loves playing outside in it, and had a major meltdown when we made him come inside, even though his poor little hands were just blocks of ice.

David has put in his vacation time for April, so we're in the process of planning our trip home.  We should be home April 18-28, and I can't wait. 

Oliver is 2 months old (adjusted)

Ugh, what a weekend.  Friday night we discovered that the outlet in the garage that the fridge and freezer out there are plugged into wasn't working, and we had no idea how long that had been.  I was in panic mode as I have a thousand ounces of frozen breastmilk in that deep freeze.  If you've ever pumped, you know how hard and tedious it is, and the thought of losing all that made me feel sick.  We finally managed to tap into the outlet on the ceiling that the garage door opener runs on, but I was getting ready to hit the internet to find homes for all that milk.

Later that night, Oliver started having trouble breathing, and was coughing.  He managed to maintain good sats, though, so we waited until Saturday morning before calling out to the clinic at the hospital.  The nurse felt that one of the doctors should see him, so we packed up and headed back out to Aurora to go to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.  The woman at registration was worried about how he sounded, so they got us right in.  It didn't take them too long to decide that he had croup, so they gave him a steroid and wanted to monitor him for several hours.  All in all, Oliver and I spent 8 hours in the ER.  Around 2 David left with Nathaniel so that he could get a nap in.  As rough as it was, Oliver was a trooper.  A few hours after he was given the meds the cough cleared up and they were able to lower his oxygen back down to what he's on at home.  Oliver didn't want to take a bottle, but decided instead he was going to nurse.  After all the struggles we've had trying to get him to breastfeed, he decided that was the day he was going to start.  He's a champ!

Oliver is doing great now, but the one lingering concern is his ROP surgery that is scheduled for Friday.  I called out to his doctor, and if all symptoms are cleared up he's ok with the surgery as scheduled. His visiting nurse was here this morning and said that he sounded perfectly clear and looked just fine.  I still need to check with the ophthalmologist, though, to see what his thoughts are. But of course, like Nathaniel's daycare, the Rocky Mountain Eye Institute is closed for President's Day.  Really?

David just left for Winnipeg for a few days.  The high there tomorrow, when he has to walk to a meeting, is -2.  He's just thrilled.  I'm just hoping that the weather doesn't delay his flight getting back in.  There's a chance of snow in the forecast for Wednesday.  My mom flew in to help me with Nathaniel while I focus on getting Oliver back to 100%.