LJ's tummy troubles continue...I took him back to the doctor on Monday because he had blood in his poop, and he was still spending his days very uncomfortable. The doctor believes it is a milk allergy, which is what I was afraid of. They had me take him off the extra calorie formula that I was mixing the breast milk with because it is milk based. She said that usually they keep preemies on the extra calories until they are 6 months old, but with his weight gain, he is ok without it. She also had me cut the dairy out of my diet. I did this for about 3 days and they took another sample of his poo...it was still bloody. Thursday they had him go off breast milk totally and go on a hypo-allergenic formula. It can take awhile for change to happen, but today it already looked better. I hate to say it, but formula may have to be the solution. Too bad it's the super expensive stuff, but if it makes him feel better, it will be worth it! In the meantime I am still pumping until we figure it out, and I have a couple hundred ounces of breastmilk in the freezer. I am hoping to be able to donate it to the hospital for other preemies to use, just like milk was donated to LJ in the first days before I had any to give him. If I can help another preemie, I will be more than happy to keep pumping for awhile.
LJ had another eye doctor appointment this week also. Mom took the morning off to go with me because I have drops to dialate his eyes before we go...it is impossible to do it alone! He still has premature eyes, but there is not any cause for concern as of yet. The eye doctor was telling us more about what they are looking for. Stevie Wonder was born prematurely and had Retinopathy of Prematurity (the technical name for it), and that is what caused him to go blind...they didn't have a way of fixing it at the time. Now, if caught early, they can do laser surgery to fix the problem before it causes blindness. It has to do with the blood vessels growing correctly.
We spent Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's house, and we had extra to be thankful for this year. Our nephew, Sam, didn't really want anything to do with LJ yet, but he doesn't yet know that one day they will be best buddies!
By last night, I think the lack of sleep had gotten to me. Matt has been the best husband ever...he volunteered to take the night shift with LJ last night, and he let me sleep all night! 7 hours of straight sleep has never been so wonderful! Luckly, Matt has every other Friday off, so he has an extra day to spend with us (and selfishly, split some of the night time feedings)! I tried to put him on a 4 hour feeding schedule one day last week, but it ended in disaster, so we are back to eating every 3 hours for the time being. I just pushed too hard. We are looking forward to Christmas break because Matt gets almost 3 weeks off again.
Below are some pictures that we had taken at the hospital the day LJ was discharged...one of the best days of our lives!
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| Full of smiles! |
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