07 July 2009

No sleep for the weary.


Time sure seems to have gotten away from me these days! I haven't been online like I used to. We haven't been too terribly busy but my priorities have shifted a bit and since I normally blog late at night or early in the morning....I haven't blogged much.

I am trying to spend more time with my kids late in the evenings. Aidan and I love to play Nancy Drew and we are trying to finish up one of those games right now. I can only play late when Liam has gone to bed. I also enjoy working in my yard and have been spending a lot of time working on a large patch of landscaping that our former owner didn't take good care of. Shawn hangs out with Liam while I go outside (covered from head to toe to keep the mosquitoes away) and spend some quality time alone, weeding and thinking.

I only get 5 hours of sleep a night and my 34 year old body is pooped. No really, I am worn out. So, I haven't been staying up late to blog as much or even spend time online. I can barely stay awake past 9:30 and then I'm up at 11:30 to feed Liam his dream bottle.

Liam is doing good. He's getting crafty and knows that if he bites the spoon, it can't go in his mouth. But he is doing a lot better at taking the food off the spoon now! Which is a big deal because he just started that with our new OT 3 sessions ago. He is doing well with his oral stim with her- he likes it and he is gagging much, much less. We work on his cheeks, lips and inside his mouth. I repeat all of the things she does right before he eats.

I have to load some videos on here of Liam laughing. As I said in my previous post, he does a lot of it. He now has this new laugh reserved only for his Baby Einstein DVD. It is hilarious. He has a lot of the video memorized and starts laughing BEFORE his favorite scenes come on! But he has one scene that has become his new favorite and he breaks out in the cutest laugh, different from all the rest.

Liam had a weight check this week and he has gained 1 1/2 pounds in the last month! That's an incredible gain for him. He's now 19.2 lbs. What has made a HUGE difference for him is the increase in his reflux meds (he gets another dose at night now) and putting him back on erythromycin to help him empty his stomach quicker. For the first time EVER, Liam has been able to get almost 5 ounces at a time in his tummy. Three months ago he started throwing up when he approached 3 ounces...so that shows what a huge difference the medication has made for him.

His weight gain is surely due to the meds and also to a little trick (or not so tricky, more like a tool) that I learned when Liam was sick last time.

Liam was sick with a high fever and he was dehydrated. He tried to gobble down his bottle but was tired and with his poor suck, he wasn't getting anywhere. I knew he was thirsty and that he needed to get the milk in, so I went and got a syringe to feed him that way. He loved it and took 5 ounces the first time I did it. The little light bulb went off for me and I knew that when Liam got tired of sucking on the bottle, I could syringe feed him the rest. That way he could get the nutrition and wouldn't be forced to take the bottle ofter he was done with it. And that is what I have done for the last month. He doesn't mind it at all (for now) and it has helped him tremendously in the weight department.

It is only at the 11:30 feeding that I sit and think of how nice it would be to have a g-tube so I could get a good nights sleep. But for now, I will continue on, aging quickly and putting my health at risk according to the newest study in order for Liam to get enough nutrition. He needs it.

So, I'm going to have to fit blogging in at an earlier time. I've missed it.

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2 comments:

Sassy said...

I so hear you about blogging late at night. I try to go to bed at a decent time but the computer calls to me. lol That is until I get so sleep deprived I can't see straight.

Also, believe it or not that is how we have to feed Olivia when she is not nursing. It took me almost five months to get her from bottle to breast and now she absolutely refuses to take a bottle, or a sippy (we've tried both too many times to count). If for some reason I'm not there to nurse her my husband has to feed her my breastmilk with a medicine dropper, and she takes it fine! It's crazy!

Only the Sheppards said...

He's getting so big!