Trey's still not feeling well, but going home!

Trey's been on the prescription formula for over 24 hours and is still throwing up. This formula has the milk proteins broken down to the amino acid level...not sure if you all remember chemistry but this is the shortest form of protein chain. The soy formula on the market is broken down to only the peptide level. But, his milk allergy test also came back negative so who really knows what is going on with the little guy. Trent told me though that there is a high rate of false negatives on those allergy tests. Trey's last three stool samples came back good (no blood) so the thought is that the new formula is working and his intestinal tract is just still irritated causing him to still throw up. So they are sending him home to only be treated on an outpatient basis! Hurrah! Keep your fingers crossed that he stops getting sick and continues to recover.

Trey's still having trouble keeping food down

Even with the formula they have him on Trey is still having issues keeping the food down 100% of the time. They did an upper GI yesterday that came back fine so they are going to switch over to a prescription formula which contains only the basic protein complex and see if he tolerates that. If not that they will do a lower GI and probably scope his system as well to see if there is a blockage somewhere.

The problems with Trey & Jayce certainly make me thankful for technology and medicine of today as who knows what would have happened if these two entered the world 50 years ago. I've been watching the Baby Story now that I am home on "vacation" and it is amazing the little lives that are saved every day by technology.

Let's pray for a healthy new year.

Milk Allergy

So the current prognosis is that Trey has a milk allergy, which means that he can not tolerate the protein found in milk products (including breast milk). He's still in the hospital but getting better. He's finally started keeping some food down and is starting to loose some of the extra fluid he's put on, which is a good sign that his body is recovering. It is so frustrating as the Drs still aren't sure if he's has this allergy all along or it just happened b/c he was sick and his body was trying to recover from the cold and ear infection. Jessica mentioned that even when they leave the hospital the Drs say that once he fully recovers that she can try to introduce milk again to see if this was just a temporary thing or it is something that it will take him years to outgrow. For now we are keeping our fingers crossed that he gets better and even if it is a milk allergy he will hopefully outgrow it while he is still young.

Thanks for all your well wishes.

Pray for Trey

For all of you that gave well wishes and prayers for Jayce, please do the same for Jayce's cousin Trey. Trey has been in the hospital since Tuesday with a viral infection. It started out as a cold, which turned into an ear infection and now the poor kid can't keep any food down. He's been on IV fluid for a couple of days and will be until he can start keeping his food down. Trent & Jessica have been keeping watch at the hospital with him. What's up with these little boys being sick! :(

Here is a recent picture of him..still has all the hair!

Christmas Pictures

So our good friend Betsy came over last night to take a "family" Christmas picture for our Christmas card. And by "family" I mean not only Jayce, but Rosie, Milo & Tabi! So I sequestered the cats in the bathroom upstairs as I knew once she got here they'd scatter. I put some reindeer ears on Rosie and made sure Jayce was fed. It took us about 15 minutes of picture taking to get a good picture. I was really surprised as I thought we'd have the most issues with Tabi but it was actually Milo that turned out to be the trouble maker. Rosie was an angel as usual. Funny thing is that for a few minutes the person we were the least worried about was Jayce!

I'd upload the pictures but you'll just have to wait for the Christmas cards!

Sleeping through the night

Holy crap I had a heart attack this morning when I woke up and realized that Jayce hadn't woken me up at all last night. I ran into his room and he was still breathing and still sound asleep after 7 hours. So I woke him up to eat and put him back to bed for another 3 hours! He slept for a straight 6 1/2 hours on Sunday night but woke me up in the morning to eat so I wasn't so alarmed. I think this was the first time I slept more than him!

This whole sleep thing is counter-intuitive. For weeks the child didn't sleep during the day and woke up every 2-3 hours at night to eat, now that we enabled the "schedule" he take 3-4 naps during the day and also sleeps 7 hours at night?? So strange. More sleep during the day and more sleep during the night?! But for the schedule...holy crap...love it. We have a rough period every few hours as Jayce wants a "snack" but we power through it and after 15 minutes or so he forgets about the snack and goes to sleep. Every 3 hours we have that bottle ready...(well we give him a 1/2 hour window)...we eat, we play, we cry then we sleep then we do it all over again..oh and I forgot about pooping...we do that a lot!!

Both Keith and I have been working with Jayce on his motor skills....being such a big baby he's able to hold his head up pretty early and we shared some pictures of that but our newest accomplishment is standing. With a little support, Jayce is able to stand for a few seconds before he gets "rubber legs". Here is a picture.

Schedule

Last night Keith and I hit a wall with Jayce...he was so overtired that it took him so long to get to sleep that he was then hungry and we had to feed him again. So today we enabled a schedule. We bottle fed him every 3 hours and he ate a full 5-6 oz. We didn't let him snack in between and he actually had 2 naps. It was miserable at times as he was indicating that he was hungry but we now know that he just always wants to be full and he really isn't starving. And we are learning the difference between the hunger and the tired cries. I feel relieved. It took us so long to get to this point but I think we might concur. Now can I do it by myself this week?

I also realized that he eats more during the day and less at night so when I breast feed him during the day he isn't getting the 5-6 oz that he really wants but I have extra milk at night as he only eats 2-3 oz during the night feedings. So I actually have enough milk for him but I need to pump at night and bottle feed him that extra couple ounces during the day.

He was a much happier baby today. A lot less crying and seemed a bit more content during the times he wasn't eating.

Oh and here is a cute picture of Keith and Jayce sleeping....well really only Keith was sleeping, Jayce was really awake.

1st real smile

Damn it...Keith got the 1st real smile. Jayce was oohing and ahhing this morning..trying to talk and I brought him over to see Keith so he could "talk" for him. Keith was making funny faces trying to get him to "talk" and Jayce instead flashes a big smile. I actually caught it in the bathroom mirror. It wasn't one of those "I have gas 1/2 smiles". I've been working Jayce over today but no smile yet for me. :(