Changes

There is one thing for certain in life, change happens. Here is our little Matthew three days old to five weeks old.

He is still a tiny might and he sure lets us know when the stars are not aligned to his liking. Life has not been easy for him but he sure is one tough kid. He meets his team at the hospital once or twice a week. During one of those visits we came really close to having to have him admitted. I thank my lucky stars that the hospital was full and because he showed some improvement in the ER we were able to come home. His diagnosis, he has had an allergy to milk. More specifically to the protein in the milk. As a result he was put on a special formula that is awful. This stuff smells so bad going in and coming out isn't pleasant either. We have been able to put him back on my milk as long as I stay off of all dairy. If he doesn't get better then I will have to go off all protein until we can figure out how his little body is handling protein. He suffers from reflux so he takes medication for that twice a day. With all of this he developed a bottle adversion. Basically he blames the bottle for all his ailments. It makes sense, if you don't eat you don't get pain. Problem with this is that eating is essential to life. He now weighs 7lbs, 7 oz and if he continues to improve they won't admit him and gavage feed him. (Tube feed.)

He is now sporting his NAM (Nasoalveolar Molding) device. It wasn't love at first sight that's for sure but now I call it his little friend. He plays with it and sucks on it when his soother isn't around. As you can see by the picture above it is held in place by elastics and tape running on his little cheeks. These tapes have to been pulled tight as to not cause little sores in his mouth. He had one little sore last week and again it must have been the bottle to do it. ;) So we had a few days with tough feeds. His NAM is adjusted each week and hopefully we only have to do this for 12 weeks.

He had another echo for his heart and everything came back really good. I am thankful for the blessings that Matthew has received and I don't forget who or what caused his heart to heal.