G-Tube Feeding

These past two days at Children's Hospital have been pretty routine. Our nurses have been wonderful and Noah's monitors have been very kind and are not beeping unnecessarily. Kc and I have learned how to feed Noah through his new G-Tube. It looks just like the "plug" on a beach ball – you know, the thing you would use to blow up the ball.
We use special tubes that lock into the G-Tube. So far, Noah has tolerated his feeds quite well. He started out with 30 ml (that's one ounce) every three hours and we have added 5 ml to each feed. We're hoping to get up to 100 ml (just over three ounces) per feeding. If Noah can tolerate that amount, Dr. Hodge says we can go home tomorrow. Yippee!!! Noah enjoys "helping" me hold the syringe. The most amazing part about this weekend has been the lack of vomit. Noah normally pukes after every feed. We wake up at least once every night to clean him and the mess he makes. He goes through a minimum of four changes of clothing every day. Because of the fundoplication procedure, Noah now smells like a baby rather than acid and curdled milk. It has truly been a glorious couple of days.

Success

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. Noah's surgery went well today. He now has a Mic-Key G-tube in his little belly and the fundoplication procedure was a success. Dr. Hodge was encouraged by how "low" the colon was and said it was easy to attach to his anus. It was a glorious moment when I finally got to hold him after he came out of recovery. He is sleeping away right now...with the help of some pain medication. Hopefully tonight all three of us will sleep like babies.

Four Months...

I'm four months today...that's old.

How old are you?

Chunky Monkey

So...we've been working hard at gaining weight. Well, actually Kc and I have been working hard at loosing weight. We both have some "baby weight" that we need to loose. Noah, on the other hand, has been working hard at gaining. We have been feeding him smaller amounts of food every hour and a half to help "keep it down" as well as feeding him on a continuous pump of food at night. We are SO excited to announce that today his stats are:

Weight: 12 pounds 8 ounces
Height: 24 inches

He is still behind where he should be. According to the experts, by four months most babies have doubled their birth weight. By that formula, Noah should be over 16 pounds. For as many surgeries and procedures he has endured, we are thankful that he is gaining weight and finally becoming a chunky monkey. His little rolls on his arms are too cute!Noah has developed "knee dimples". They are SO adorable.I wish that Kc and I had to work hard in order to gain weight. It just seems to come so easy for the both of us.

Big Surgery Day

This Friday, the 29th, Noah will be heading back to Children's Hospital once again to go under the knife. First, his ENT doctor, Dr. Dunham, will perform a trachioscopy, which will allow him to look down Noah's trachea and "see what's going on". Next, Dr. Hodge, will perform the Nissen Fundoplication and insert a G-Tube. If time permits, he will also do the first part of Noah's colostomy reversal – connecting the bottom of the colon to his anus. Once that has healed, in about six weeks, Noah will go back for the final part of his colostomy reversal – putting the colon back together. We'd love prayers on Friday for the doctors and nurses, for Noah, and for Daddy and I who will once again be spending several days and nights in the hospital.