Life At Home

        Flint has now been home for over a month, and things are finally starting to settle into a rhythm.  At first, he had a lot of follow-up doctor appointments to attend, but now we are in a pattern of seeing the occupational therapist (Audra) once a month, the neurosurgeon (Dr. Errington) every couple of months, and the pediatrician (Dr. Walsh) every WEEK!  Yes, you read that right!  He should only have to see her every couple of months, like any other well-child appointment schedule.  However, Flint is having a difficult time gaining weight, so we've been in there every week to monitor his weight.  I tell you, the things you take for granted!  I've had babies who have weighed 16 pounds at their 2 month check! 
        All my other babies gain weight as easily as I do, so it was totally unexpected when Flint didn't gain any weight over a 10 day period.  Dr. Walsh was quite concerned and had me start supplementing after each time I nursed him.  I was shocked to see that every time I completed a full nursing session with him, he would still chug down about 2-3 ounces of formula!  It is just so much harder to get milk from Mom than from a bottle!  After doing this for a week, he gained 11 ounces, so we were VERY excited that he was finally over 7 lbs.  However, by this point, he also refused to take a bottle.  He was nursing so much better after the week of supplementing, that I assumed he had kind of woken up and figured nursing out so he didn't need any extra. I quit trying to supplement him and just made sure he had good, strong nursing sessions.  That was pretty easy to do, because he spent the following week attached to me, nursing non-stop.  I figured he was going through a growth spurt like my other kids had done and all was finally well.  YA RIGHT!  We weighed him Wednesday after the growth spurt, and he only gained 2 ounces that week!  Dr. Walsh asked how often I was supplementing him and I told her he wouldn't take a bottle anymore, so I hadn't supplemented him at all.  She pulled out a bottle of formula, popped it in his mouth, and he proceeded to chug down 2 ounces.  That little turkey! 
        Needless to say, we are officially back to supplementing.  Dr. Walsh said that preemies just have a much higher caloric need than other babies (and the neurosurgeon said having hydrocephalus makes it even higher), so he's just burning through calories faster than I can make them.  At this point, he is a 7 lb, 3 oz. two-and-a-half month old, so he is way under his caloric needs.  So far this week, he has been fine with the bottles, so we are just praying hard that he will continue to do so.  If not, we'll have to supplement him with a syringe in his mouth because he just simply HAS to have those extra calories.  We'll go in Wednesday for another weight check and are hoping for good news!
        The other thing that makes it hard for him to gain weight, is that he spits up like CRAZY!  It is not projectile by any means, but he probably spits out 1/3 of what he eats.  Dr. Walsh finally put him on some reflux medicine, but so far we haven't seen many improvements on that front.  I'm not really worried about this, but it sure is a pain to deal with!  He goes through burp cloths like you wouldn't believe, and there is absolutely no point in wearing anything even sort of nice when you hold him, because it is highly likely that it will soon be soaking wet with spit-up. 
        While these challenges can be a little stressful to deal with, I am so grateful to be dealing with them!  It's a blessing to have a sweet, healthy baby in our home and I find joy in helping him meet his challenges.  Overall, Flint really is doing great and is doing all the same things any other baby would be doing.  He was quite fussy for a few weeks, but now that he's getting a full tummy, he is sweet and peaceful, and on Friday he smiled at me for the first time!  I literally burst into tears!  He has continued to smile a couple of times each day since then, and we are SO happy to finally see it.  Even though that smile was right on schedule with his gestational age, it felt like it would never come since he's actually been here for 2 1/2 months.  We're so grateful that he has reached his first big milestone!
        Everyone else is doing great and we're all starting to catch our breath after a crazy couple of months.  Now that the scary part of this experience has passed, we had a Family Home Evening on Monday to talk about what we learned through this.  We discussed that whenever we have trials, we need to learn from the experience and be grateful for the miracles we've seen.  We asked the kids to write down what they learned from their experience with Flint.  I was touched by their sweet responses:
        Davis:  "I learned that people give us things and helped us with Flint.  He is a miracle and he is so fun.  People give service in times of need.  Even though only one person can be at our sport events, they help Flint grow stronger and bigger. (She was referring to the fact that until RSV season is over, Flint has to stay home and therefore, only one parent can come to all the kids' events).  People love us very much and we love them too!  When he starts getting bigger, I'm going to take him into my room and help him read better.  Flint is a MIRACLE!"
        Duke:  "Lots of people helped us when Flint was going to come.  That means that Jesus answered our prayers.  I'm thankful that Flint is alive.  Even though Flint has a tube in his head, he is just the same."
        Gage: "Flint is fun.  Flint is alive.  Heavenly Father answers our prayers."
        Trayson didn't really understand the question "What did you learn?" so Brock just asked him what he was grateful for about Flint.  Here's what he told Brock: "Holding him.  Kissing him.  I'm a big brother.  I'll teach him how to walk down the stairs and how to run.  Heavenly Father answers prayers.  Socks, bed, put shoes on."  (I'm not sure about that last part, but that's what he said!)
        Out of the mouths of babes!
        As life progresses from this point, I am anxious that Flint's disability not define our family, so my posts from now on will hopefully be able to center more on our family as a whole.  His progression will certainly be an integral part of our family, but I don't want it to be the only part.  I will be sure to post updates on all the other kids soon, but for now we are grateful to be home, enjoying life as a family!