Weekend clean up

Sunday morning and I made an early morning milk delivery for Thomas' 8 am feeding. Since Wednesday, feedings for Thomas have been up and down. He was struggling with it most of Thursday and Friday, but yesterday was a bit better. They've switched from the original formula combined with milk to Ellicare combined with milk, which Thomas seems to be taking better. Part of the issue may be that Thomas has a diaper rash. That combined with the hernias and the potential for acid reflux may be making things uncomfortable all the way around for him.

The other issue is that Thomas is a little A.D.D. I do not in any way mean that in the literal sense. Thomas doesn't have any disorder. He's a new born boy that easily gets distracted, especially in the NICU unit that he's in now. Most of the babies in there are similar to Thomas in that they are on there way out the door or resolving an issue to be out the door. A great many of them are also feeding from the bottle, so there is always activity and noise and things to turn your head towards. Thomas is also working on his communication skills. Right now he appears to be on the chapter pertaining to using your hands to gesture, because they are always flying about akimbo.

Swaddling helps the arm issue temporarily, but Thomas looks alot like Harry Houdini working his way out of straight jacket. He can almost always work one hand loose and, more times than not, both. Just a matter of time. To his credit, he does not get frustrated by this process, just keeps at it.

Anyway, the long and the short of it, is we haven't found the right combination to get him to take his bottle every time. He seems to be doing bette rthough. He's still gaining weight though, 5 pounds, 11 ounces and he seems to be filling in. His legs are starting to get a little chunky.

And now its time for another installment of Mike's Observation Corner. In today's corner, I'll be observing myself. I've noticed that any time anyone asks about Thomas, I tend to give a vague answer, that he's fine, things are going well. Its not for the reason that some might think. Its not that I don't want to talk about Thomas, quite the opposite. Its actually that I don't want to spoil the blog. If there's something interesting that I plan to write on the blog, I find myself subconsciously holding back information so that I don't scoop myself. I think that's a little weird and I'm working on not being so secretive.