Coming Home

Brandon will be coming home tomorrow. We have monitor training at 3:00 for the apnea monitor and then we will be able to bring him home after that. I am both excited and nervous at the same time. Brandon weighed 2380 grams tonight so he is now 5 pounds 4 ounces. It is going to be strange to not have his weight taken each night. They did start him on some kind of oil tonight to help him gain weight. His weight has been fluctuating since he started the diuretics which is understandable since the job of diuretics is to remove extra fluid. It will be up to his pediatrician if he stays on the oil or not.

Brandon had a repeat head ultrasound yesterday. He still has mild slightly enlarged ventricles. Dr. Rekedal thinks that this is just normal for Brandon and is not concerned.

We were having some issues with Brandon and his multivitamin. He had been getting it through his feeding tube but he had to start taking it orally several nights ago. The first night he had it after he had his bottle and he threw it all up after taking it. Two nights ago and last night he desatted after taking it due to the taste. Dr. Rekedal suggested giving him 1/4 of it 4 times a day in 15 cc's of formula and then giving him the rest of his bottle. We tried that tonight for the first time and it seemed to be better. I am going to talk to his pediatrician on Monday when he goes and see what they say. Maybe they can switch to a different one that tastes better if there is one. The reason he is on it is the eye doctor thought it would help with his eyes.

I spoke to one of the neonatologists today about RSV and he told me about an interesting study. Years ago there was a baby that had RSV (not sure what hospital). They took people and divided them into three groups. One group just looked at the baby, one group touched the baby, and one group picked up the baby and cuddled it. In the group that just looked at the baby nobody got RSV. In the group that touched the baby 40% got RSV and in the group that picked up the baby 70% got RSV. We are more than happy to have friends and family (no children until after RSV season unfortunately) come over to visit once Brandon is home in small quantities but please understand if you are not able to touch Brandon or hold Brandon during RSV season. It is very important that we keep him healthy so that he does not wind up back in the hospital. We also ask that if you have a cold or have been exposed to someone with a cold that you do not come over until you are 100% healthy.

Brandon got his pictures taken professionally at the hospital today. They came out really cute. I will put one on here when we get them.