Thursday, February 5, 2009

Good morning from Rhys!

Little man isn't such a morning person, but he says GOOD morning just the same. So, here's what is going on with Rhys the last few days... We took him to the "regular" pedi on Tuesday after an all-out refusal to eat. We've been seeing the high risk clinic pedi since discharge because we thought it would be easier at the beginning to not have to shuffle back and forth, but we didn't anticipate all of these feeding problems. So, we decided to get a second opinion of sorts about Rhys from his regular pedi since maybe a fresh opinion that doesn't treat him as an escapee from the NICU would be helpful. We brought him in and again, she too didn't seem overly concerned about him not wanting to eat. He looks "so great", which we love, but sometimes wonder if that keeps people from seeing he really might have a problem. She referred to him as a picky preemie and suggested we try more of the rice cereal approach, sort of like get him to eat however you can. The high risk doctor stressed the rice cereal only by spoon, but then I started thinking... WHY?? At this point I think it is more important for him to eat than learn how to use a spoon so I added some cereal to his bottle, used the Y cut nipple and wouldn't you know he sucked it dry in about 12 minutes with no arching, no crying and no fighting. He ate so good on Tuesday, continued to eat great yesterday and so far this morning. I am really hoping he just needed his milk a little thicker. I am going to get Simply Thick so I don't have to keep adding cereal to every bottle. They tried the Simply Thick in the hospital and it was a disaster! But, thinking back on it I believe it was probably because the nipple flow was entirely too low and he couldn't get anything out of the bottle. The milk consistency right now isn't nearly as thick as what it was in the hospital and he's doing perfectly on the Y cut nipple.

Not only is he eating better, but he's sleeping better too. The last two nights he's slept for nearly 8 hours. He's had a few wake-ups where he whines a little, but a little patting and the pacifier gets him back to sleep. The poor boy doesn't know how to act with a full tummy....he's been starving for 5 weeks!


We saw a new therapist yesterday, at the recommendation of a fellow preemie mom, and I loved her. Night and day from the other person in terms of the preemie knowledge. It is a bit of a drive, but totally worth it. She was very thorough and great with Rhys. We will be going once a week for a while and once we are moving in the right direction we will scale back to once a month. She said the main thing he needs to work on is the muscle control under his chin, and also interaction with toys, which is something I'd noticed he wasn't really into. Other than that she thinks he looks good. Someone mentioned having a therapist come to their house, but the only people I know who come to the house is ECI. We have a therapy consult with them in two weeks, but they don't come as often as I feel Rhys will need so right now we are sticking with outside therapy until Rhys gets to where he needs to be. Also to ease my mind I am bringing him to a pediatric GI doctor Friday to make sure he doesn't have any other feeding/stomach issues going on that we're not aware of.

Yesterday after therapy. I got a little grumpy about
half way through my appointment and I didn't want to participate.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for eating! I hope he keeps it up and pray that the milk just needs to be thicker.

The pictures of Rhys are awesome. He is such a handsome little man. Love the Aggie gear!

~Bran

Mary Anne Whiteley said...

My niece has had to have rice cereal added to her bottles for a long time, due to her reflux. Although they don't typically recommend it, I think that if it keeps food where it's supposed to be (in the tummy), then it's a good idea.

Rhys is looking great! Do they have any estimates as to when he will get off of his oxygen yet?

hsturner said...

I don't post much but I check to see how he's doing almost everyday and to say a prayer for him. Glad to hear he is eating better. I always said whatever works do it! Now he can start gaining weight and get those cute baby rolls.

Jodi said...

I'm not sure why Olivia has always needed her formula thickened. She was on Enfamil AR (with rice cereal already added) and it worked with a regular medium flow nipple. That worked really well for her. Now, we have to thicken her Next Step Lipil still with rice cereal. I think that is why she is having trouble drinking out of a cup or drinking other liquids. It just comes out too fast and is too thin. Glad to hear that you found a good therapist. Love the new pictures!

amyoutlaw said...

Who would've thunk it? That seems like a simple soln'.