Life has been exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally these past few weeks, but I'm praying that it has come to an end (well, life with a newborn and a toddler don't really allow for that, so at least back to normal!).
I noticed Gabriel having a hard time keeping his food down about 2 weeks ago; usually within an hour of nursing him, he would vomit up what seemed like all of the milk, and most of the time it would shoot out of his nose and mouth, not just dribble like most "spitter-uppers". As time went on, the vomiting got worse and he was losing weight.
To make a long story short (or maybe just not as long), there were many doctor visits, and finally at the last one we were sent to the ER for testing. I had thought it might be pyloric stenosis, but after losing 1oz, he gained back 5oz in the middle of the 2 week span, and then lost 2oz a few days later. Usually with PS, the baby's weight does a downward spiral pretty fast, so the 5oz weight gain confused the pediatrician, and I wasn't so set on it being PS anymore.
We got to the ER, and after 3 attempts to put the IV in (both hands & inner elbow), they decided on the nice plump vein on his .....head. As sad as it looks, I'm glad it ended up being there, because it was a lot easier to move him around, and he couldn't grab it like he could have if it was somewhere else.
The ultrasound confirmed it: Pyloric
Stenosis. I was actually hoping it would be PS, since the research that I had previously done on it said the babies go back to healthy and normal after a quick and very low risk surgery.
(the anesthesiologists coming to take him away...)
The next day he had the surgery, and Dr. Fischer, the surgeon, commented afterwards on how thick the muscle had gotten. I guess it was pretty bad. The crazy thing is how fast the PS progressed-- by the time we got to the hospital, the only thing they would let me feed him was sugar water that his binky was dipped in, so he was only getting a couple drops at a time. Once that would accumulate enough in his belly, that would get vomited up too.
The surgery went well, praise God!
Our first time seeing him post-surgery.
Note the glowing red toe and all the monitor patches (which I guess you can't really see them all in this picture) that had Mo referring to him as the little
Christmas tree.
Tiring in every way imaginable!
This is Cadence (3 months), Gabe's little roomie. We were blessed that the other family in our room was very nice, but kept to themselves also.
The last day at the hospital ended with Gabriel actually responding to my smiles! Yay!
These pictures pretty much sum Ava up to a "T".
Waiting for the big Hunt!
Carter Grandkids, Inc.
Life has been exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally these past few weeks, but I'm praying that it has come to an end (well, life with a newborn and a toddler don't really allow for that, so at least back to normal!).
It's so nice to have friends with backyards!!