Luke's Journey: 3 Weeks/4 Months!

Wow, I can't believe how time flies! On the 23rd Luke turned 4 months old and as of today he is corrected to 3 weeks old. My baby is getting older :(
It has been hectic having him home, but I love it, Between doctor appointments, monitors, oxygen, feedings etc I don't have time to do anything else! Here is what has happened over the last few weeks...

The Tuesday after Luke came home he decided he didn't want to use his feeding tube anymore! He started nursing better and taking his bottles better! We were elated since the doctors were starting to talk about putting a g-tube in and we really didn't want that. I was nursing him constantly and giving him about 3-4 bottles per day. We took him to the doctor for a weight check 1 week later and he hadn't gained any weight (he hadn't lost either). So the doctor said he needs more bottles for the increased calories (we fortify my breast milk with formula to make it richer for him). So now, I only nurse him a few times a day and he gets bottles the rest of the time, which seems to be working because as of Monday he was 10 lbs!!! So the feeding tube is out and is staying out!!! I am continuing to pump so he gets my milk, but that is getting harder and harder to do during the day while taking care of him (and myself), so we will see how much longer I do this. I don't want to quit because I know eventually he will be like any other baby and will be able to nurse exclusively, but I am not sure if I can make it that long :(

We have also had to deal with acid reflux with him. We were hoping it would get better once the feeding tube was out, but it didn't. After trying to make his milk thicker by adding rice cereal with no success, I finally went to the doctor and ordered them to fix him. He would cry for hours after every feeding and looked miserable. I couldn't take it anymore! They started him on Zantac on Monday and so far, it seems to be helping. He is sleeping better and eating better.

Matt and I have decided he is colicy as well. From the early evening until we can finally get him to go to sleep his is screaming. Nothing seems to help. We rock him, bounce him, everything and he continues to cry. Thanks to some suggestions from friends on FaceBook, I tried gripe water and a miracle blanket and they seem to help him sleep better. His sleeping is a work in progress. Usually he only gets up once in the middle of the night :) Last night I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up at 7 am and he was just waking up! (he went to sleep around midnight) When we first came home he slept in the bassinet next to our bed and we quickly learned that that wasn't going to work! Luke is very talkative (all the time) and Matt and I were getting no sleep! Now he sleeping in his crib in his room...such a big boy!

He is quickly growing out of his clothes...the newborn stuff barely fits and probably won't much longer. I have him in some of the 0-3 month clothes that I have and they seem to work fine for now.

Matt and I have a love/hate relationship with the apnea (not breathing) monitor Luke wears 24/7. We like that it will alert us if something is going on with him (especially since he sleeps in another room), but it has NEVER...I repeat NEVER gone off for something actually being wrong with Luke. He says he isn't breathing all the time when we can clearly hear him!!! Our favorite is the "loose lead" alarm (which just means the lead to sense his breathing/heart rate isn't touching his skin well enough), which without fail, will go off in the middle of the night while Luke is SOUND ASLEEP! We have to wake him up and undress him to fix it.......imagine my disgust. He is still on oxygen, but Matt and I constantly find it out of his nose and he does just fine. We have an appointment with the Pulmonologist (Lung doctor) on Monday and we are hoping we get to stop it soon. It is a hassle taking him anywhere with him in the carseat, a diaper bag, an apnea monitor, and an oxygen tank!

He seems to be developing right on track (or even a little ahead). He is now rolling over from his belly to his back and is doing really well with head control. He loves looking at our faces and his toys and will follow them if you move them!

We got some newborn pictures taken a couple of weeks ago and they should be back soon and I will post. Until then, these will have to do :)