One Week Survived

Luke isn't too excited for his Dad's video game.

Hanging out watching television with his Mommy and Daddy

Bella was the designated babysitter for the afternoon

What a week it has been. I think that we have finally gotten the hang of things. Luke is starting also to become for comfortable here. To start the week off, he didn't sleep a lot the first two nights. Now he is only getting up twice a night...yeah! We survived our first trip to Riley, only to go back again next week. I think the dogs have gotten used to Luke also. At first they had no idea what he was, but now I think they are more and more protective. Here I thought Bella would be the one that ran away from Luke and instead he is so interested in his little noises. Lola thinks she needs to lick him and Zbi won't leave the room where he is. I'm just happy that they aren't trying to attack him.
We had a little situation last night. Luke's heart monitor has two patches that go under each armpit. On Thursday we switched to a belt contraption due to the patches making marks on Luke's skin. At first things were working well, only one false alarm. Then last night I went to change Luke for bed and noticed that he was a little smelly. I went to give his chest time to breath and pulled off the monitor and found that Luke was broken out. The monitors from the belt had created blisters and they had popped and left discharge all over. Poor baby looked miserable. After calling the doctors we are now putting hydrocortisone cream on and are back to the sticker patches. I am cutting them down a bit, just so there is less stuck to his skin. I will admit I had a little crazy moment. This was something new and wasn't prompted that this could happen. I left his monitor off of him for 2 hours just to let stuff breathe. That was a long 2 hours, I couldn't stop looking at him making sure he was still breathing. I am going to be nut when they take the monitor from me. I'm relying too much on it, but this child has always been on a monitor.
Today we were visited by the home nurse. She comes twice a week to check on Luke, but mainly to weigh him. Earlier in the week on Monday Luke weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces at the pediatrician office. Today she weighed him at 6 pounds 10 ounces. That is a great weight gain. The goal was an ounce a day at the hospital. He weighed 6 pounds even when we left the hospital. So he has gained plenty. Hopefully if we keep this up we can get off the fortifier when we visit the developmental pediatrician. Luke is loving his bottle also, I don't want to take it away. We let him take the bottle if he wants it, and we feed the tube when he is asleep. They wanted us to monitor him during his feeds. He doesn't stress out and his heart rate doesn't increase also. Hopefully we won't have to keep the feeding tube for very much longer....praying. Once less thing to worry about and tape to his face. I know he enjoys it when the tube isn't in his nose. That pretty much sums up the past few days. Hopefully the pictures can help hold you over till next time.

Jordan