Memorial Day Weekend - Late Edition :-)

Hi everyone! Somehow, someway, keeping up with Colin's blog is much more of a challenge now than it ever was when he was in the hospital. I clearly haven't held up to my once-a-week entries. Just too challenging! I realize it makes it tough on everyone to know when to look for updates, and I wish it were easier, but it's not. So, random entries it is. Ultimately, this blog is for my boy and he doesn't care when Daddy does his entries! Keeping that in mind, I hope everyone understands my inconsistencies! :-)
Okay, now onto more important things than housekeeping! Colin has had a rough last couple of weeks. On one hand, he's been active in terms of doing well going places a little more often, taking daily walks in the neighborhood, etc. However, he's really taking to vomiting everyday now, sometimes several times per day. We kept being told that this was "normal" and that he'd outgrow it. Maybe true, but it reached a crescendo late last week when the vomiting wouldn't turn off and he was even dry-heaving. I rushed home from the office and Mom and I got him to his pediatrician's office. The doctor tried to assure us that everything looked good and not to worry, until she asked us about his sleeping pattern. Colin had been sleeping more the past 2 weeks than ever before. We thought it was a growing phase, until they weighed him at the doctor's office: he had only gained 6 ounces in 2 weeks. So much for averaging 1/2 pound PER week. So the bottom line was that when you combine more sleeping with more vomiting and less growth, something had to be checked.
They ran a CBC, and the only thing that came up was a high lymphocyte count, meaning he had an infection. In this case, it was viral. How long had he had it? Was it this past 2 weeks, hence the increased vomiting? Or was it just a 24-hour thing? Hard to say. The doctor didn't know. The thing is, he wasn't febrile and he otherwise looked good (not lethargic, good color, etc). Last week he had an upper GI series to rule-out any obstructions or other abnormalities. Everything checked out normal, minus the reflux. I was proud of him for sucking down the barium from the bottle! I thought there would be no way he's do it, but he was a trooper - as always! I'll post an adorable pic of him after the test with chalky, barium lips! So we just have to let this thing run it's course. In the meantime, we have to figure out what to do about his continual vomiting.
We consulted with one of Colin's primary nurses back at the ICN. She said to thicken the amount of cereal we were giving him (his pediatric GI said this was okay previously too). Anyway, it seems to have slowed down a bit, so we hope it that's all we have to do. The endoscopy which is coming up will give us more information too. I hate that he's got to go through that procedure, but better to rule-out more serious causes of his vomiting than just "it is what it is". Colin's been through too much for us to just start assuming things are "normal".
Aside from the 800 pound gorilla in the room - or whatever that expression is - he's coming along well developmentally. He's good better head control, can put standing pressure on his legs when we hold him up, grabs items with both hands, and can transfer objects from one hand to the other, and "talks" to us more. He's smiling more too - our favorite! We're still working on practicing rolling over, sitting up, and getting him to identify his feet and play with them, among other things. It's fun - and amazing - to see changes in babies. Colin's going at his own, slow pace, but the development is just so cool, and we're just so happy for him! Until next time...