I should have been more specific.

I tell you what--this prayer thing gets me every time! Praise God for answering my prayer--but I should have been more specific. You see, I didn't necessarily literally mean "pray for a gain from the last weight"--I meant that his gain be in accordance with the amount he was already supposed to be gaining each day.
Par weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. last time. Today he weighs 7 lbs. 10 oz.--he did gain weight-yes...but there is still a tiny issue.
It is hard to know how to approach this because of many factors--he lost weight the night before we were discharged and then he had a 10 hour road trip and was weighed not 8 hours later--so technically, he could have still been losing weight for that day or so with all the trauma of coming home. For all we know, he lost 12 oz. and has now recovered them with an added ounce. But they (doctors and lactation person) don't really care about the different scenarios--they just want him to gain weight. Well...so do I. After seeing the lactation consultant (she watched Par nurse--did a pre/post weigh)--she was impressed that he drank 2 ounces in our short nursing period--and without trouble. The good news is that we know he is getting it in his body--the bad news is the quality of milk--not quantity. Basically, the hindmilk is the fatty/high calorie milk that comes after the foremilk (which is like skim milk)--the idea is to get the hindmilk in him without expending the energy to nurse until he gets it--so I am going to express/pump off milk before nursing so he can get to the hindmilk quicker. We also talked about supplementing--I am not a fan of this--but we reached a good compromise--basically I am going to let the hindmilk/foremilk separate in the pumped bottles that I have and feed him his medicine with hindmilk (I was just expressing a little milk before)--hopefully, these two things will be just the remedy. In the mean time, I have a scale that they sent me home with so I can obsess over how much he weighs and eats each day. I go back for a weigh in on Friday--so, now for specifics--please pray that he will have gained an ounce or more each day until the weigh in. Actually, please pray that he breaks the 8 pound mark--not sure if that is possible...but worth a shot!!!

Speaking of shots...
Even before all that mess--we had a little issue at the pediatrician. Par got his immunizations today--6 of them--1 oral, 4 shots (2 are in one shot). Well, he was so good for the first 3...just wimpered a little--such a tough little boy. I couldn't watch, I was just looking at him in the face telling him it was almost over--then he let out the scariest scream--I turned and his leg is spraying blood out like a fountain--the nurse quickly put a cotton ball on and then his little thigh began to blow up--I was shocked and asked her what was going on. She went and got another nurse who then said to get Dr. Farr. By the time he came in, the blood was no longer spraying but he did have a little golf ball size knot on his thigh. He confirmed that it was a hematoma and that unfortunately there is a risk of infection--so we are watching it carefully and I am to call and report on it tomorrow. The nurse felt bad--apparently this isn't common--but I couldn't say "oh don't worry about it" because my baby was crying and in pain--so, on the off chance that she is reading this blog--I know it was an accident and there is no need for apologies.



Par has been fussy (obviously) for the afternoon--taking some deep naps between eating (not the best day to try and up the feeding, huh!?! In a weird way, today was a lot more difficult than being in the NICU--probably because I don't know these people and they don't know Par. They also don't normally deal with fragile children (I could be wrong, but it is just a regular pediatrician). Either way, I knew what I signed up for when I decided to go to Dr. Kays--we knew that he wouldn't be able to babysit us once we went home...but we still wouldn't change a thing--by the power of God, Dr. Kays saved our baby's life.



On a lighter note, I couldn't decide what Par should wear to the doctor this morning. I frantically dressed him in three different outfits and then chose what he had worn to church earlier this week. Ironically, his most boyish outfit (Christiane should get a kick out of this)--for the first time I had 4 different people ask me about my little "girl"! Now, I'm no brain surgeon, but Par was sporting his famous mohawk--and his his outfit did have blue on it--oh well...

Looking forward to a better tomorrow...

Love,
Liz, Rusty & Par