Kids should wear rubber

Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that we seem to have gotten over the hump with the bottle tantrums. Being firm with him got us back to taking about 20mL from the bottle which is much better than the 5mL or nothing we were getting with tantrums. He also had a doctor appointment yesterday and his weigh-in showed a 3/4 lb. increase from the beginning of the month and growth of over an inch in length! The doctor appointment was to have his g-tube button replaced which is a quick in-office procedure that lasts about five minutes. He has to have it replaced every three months, and we will be expected to do it at home once they see us do it once. It really is quite interesting -- it's just this little hole in his tummy, kind of like a piercing, and I can see how it will just close up on it's own when we're done with the tube.

But...and there's always a but...we have had an increase of some pretty massive spit ups. I'm not talking normal baby amounts, I'm talking about half his feed almost every single time we feed him. I called the doctor and they said to put him back on the feeding pump at night and decrease his bottle amounts back to where they were, but this hasn't really helped. I have another call into the doctor to see what to try next, but in the meantime, I have a sneaking suspicion the formula may be at fault. It's a super-rich preemie formula called Neosure, which he had been using in the hospital. However, he hasn't been on this high of a concentration of it since before his g-tube surgery three months ago. Given his growth in the past couple of weeks, I'm not sure he needs so many calories since he made those growth gains while spitting up a bunch of his food. I've talked with a few other preemie moms who had issues with Neosure, so I'm going to try a lesser concentration of it to see if that improves things while I wait for the hospital to call back. We don't think it's reflux (and neither does his therapist) given that he doesn't show any other signs such as discomfort when sleeping flat on his back, continuing discomfort during and after feeds due to residual stomach acid burn feeling, or refluxing even when he isn't eating. We've gotten pretty good at aiming him at the sink while we're waiting for the inevitable spit up, but we're still changing clothes several times a day. The washer and dryer in the apartment are a definite must and my carpet has been inundated with Oxiclean.

But, in other news, he is trying to roll from back to front and does much better with tummy time. He can complete the roll from front to back or back to front with just a little help and likes to spend time on his blanket on the floor goofing off. He spends a lot of time halfway in-between a roll just getting up on his side and then falling back talking all the while. This appears to be great fun. At least he's enjoying the exercise!