July 2, 2010

It's been awhile since we've posted, but not much has changed in Benjamin's little world.

He was having a few issues with malabsorption so they decided to change the formula they add to his milk. He had a huge weight gain within the past day so not sure we can say it's the new fortifier working so quickly (it's highly unlikely), but we're thrilled! He's now 5 lbs. 8 ozs. This was a welcome surprise. Because he was breathing so quickly on Thursday, we thought he was burning a ton of calories and would end up losing some weight.

They decided to go up a bit on his oxygen because of his rapid breathing (possibly from the eye exam he had the other day), and we've noticed a small improvement since the increase. He's still having quite a few brady spells every day (dropping his heart rate), but they're mostly self resolving and rarely followed by a desat which is good. As far as why he's having them, we're not really sure. He should have stopped them weeks ago. He does have an exam exam every week and the drops used in his eyes can be systemic and cause them. Also, he has bad reflux and we notice sometimes he'll look like he's choking and then he'll brady. He also has a tendency to spell while he's taking a bottle. At other times we're puzzled because he'll do it in his sleep.

Now onto his eyes. The opthamologist we spoke with yesterday said he was very happy with what he saw during his exam. He believes the ROP is regressing and he doesn't think we'll see a third wave which is such positive news! Before transporting him to South Shore, he wants to perform another exam. We're keeping our fingers crossed next Thursday's exam shows major improvement.

It will be wonderful to have him closer to home and to see our old friends from South Shore again, but we will miss the nurses at Childrens very much while we're gone. They've grown so attached to Benjamin. One of his nurses was telling me how annoyed she was the other day because she was trying to do his cares and a few of the other nurses kept coming over to talk to him and hold him. It's so comforting to know he's being well cared for and receives tons of attention when we're not there. At least we won't have to say goodbye for long. He'll be back in the NICU for another stretch of time after they reverse his ostomy.