Home Visit Discharge

Today was Ryder's last visit from the home nurse. He was 6lb 7.5oz on her scale today. The scale she has and the scale at the pediatrician must be a little different because I doubt he gained 7.5oz in 2 days. But it shows that he gained at least. From his last weight with the home nurse which was 1 week ago he has gained 11.5oz!

Update on both boys after their vaccines....they did good. We did have to start giving them Tylenol because of a slight fever and also being fussy. Their legs are so tense where the shots were given so I am sure it hurts. They go back for 3 more next week.

2-Month Pediatrician Appointment

The boys were at the pediatrician today for their 2-month check-up. They have both gained weight well and are on track developmentally for being preemies. Zak weighed 7lb 10oz and was 20.5inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for height and weight of preemies on the growth curve. Ryder was 6lb exactly and 18.5inches long which is the 5th percentile for preemies. He is smaller, but still gaining well and doing great. They needed a total of 6 vaccines today, but the pediatrician didn't want to do that many at 1 time. So today they received 3 and will go back next Thursday for the last 3. They will go back to see the pediatrician at 4 months next.
We talked about the RSV vaccine today. The pediatrician said they 100% need it and if the insurance company doesn't want to cover it they will fight until it gets covered since they really need it. If you are not sure what RSV is there are a few good websites explaining it. Real quick explanation is that it is a really bad cold that preemies can get which can be fatal for them. They can get RSV from any person who has recently had even a mild cold. Because of their high risk of getting RSV they will receive the monthly vaccine along with our job of keeping them away from anybody who is sick or has been within 7 days of coming around the boys.

http://www.rsvinfo.com/
http://www.rsvprotection.com/
http://www.mostonline.org/preemieBB/viewtopic.php?t=30

Home Nurse Discharge

Today the home nurse was here to weigh the boys and check on their progress. She first checked over Zak and weighed. He now weighs 7lb 4.5oz which is a gain of 11.5oz in 7 days! She decided he is doing great and no longer needs home visits.
She then looked over Ryder and weighed him as well. He is now weighing 5lb 12oz which is a gain of 9oz in 7 days which is also great. At the moment he has a pretty bad diaper ash which is not going away along with his hernia/hydrocele so she will come back next week to just check on him again. But he is gaining weight good which is the primary concern. Ryder had some bad diaper rashes in the NICU as well so we think he just has extra sensitive skin.
They both go back to the pediatrician October 9 for their first round of vaccines...hope they take it well and it isn't too hard to watch.

Quick Update

The boys are doing great. They are both piggies now and are eating between 3-4.5oz every 3-4 hours. Today the home nurse was here to weigh them and they both gained well. Zak went from 5lb 11.5oz to 6lb 8oz in 7 days!! Ryder went from 4lb 9.5oz to 5lb 2oz in a week. They both gained more than the average 1oz per day.

Yesterday we took Ryder to see the pediatric urologist to check on his possible hernia/hydrocele and the chordae. He thinks that there is no hernia and just a hydrocele, but we go back in December for him to see if things have changed at all. Ryder will have surgery to fix the chordae, be circumcised and to also correct the hydrocele in March. Zak will also go in March to be circumcised.

Perfect Fit

So we were mean horrible parents yesterday. While at the mall we saw some cute kids Halloween costumes in Pottery Barn Kids so we went in to look. Of course they would not fit the boys, but then we saw stuffed animals with the same Halloween costumes on. The stuffed animals were smaller than the boys so we knew it would fit them. After discovering that stuffed animal clothes would fit them we went down to Build A Bear and found lots of choices to pick from. Of course we both had our favorites, but we ended up with 2 very cute costumes. We got a Redskins football outfit and an Oriole's baseball outfit.

*I want to go back and get some more cute clothes we found like a really cute pair of jean overalls*

Trip to ER

Ryder definitely gave us a long stressful night last night. I will start at the beginning....the NICU discharged him saying he had 1 testicle larger than the other, but all was fine int hat area. At the first pediatrician appointment they thought he had a hernia and/or a hydrocele (collection of fluid) so we scheduled an appointment with the pediatric urologist who saw him in the NICU. That appointment is this upcoming Wednesday. Yesterday when the home nurse was here to weight the boys we noticed his right testicle was twice the size it had been and was very hard now so we went to the pediatrician last night. She then sent us to the University of Maryland Pediatric ER to see a surgeon there because she thought it was a hernia that might need immediate surgery. After being there for about 7 hours and seeing several different doctors and surgeons they decided he does have a hernia and a hydrocele that will need to be fixed soon, but they did not feel the need to do it last night as an emergency. So we are waiting to see the urologist next week to see what he says and then find out if he will be having surgery or not. Will keep everybody updated.....

An Update

The boys are doing good. Zak had a few days where he didn't gain weight, but he is now gaining weight just as Ryder is. They are doing much better with eating. Every 3 hours they are eating 55ml which is just under 2oz. They are eating it much quicker and not having problems like they had been. We have hit the spit up phase so that is always fun. They are also starting to stay awake for a little bit after 1 or 2 feedings. We had our first family outing yesterday to Babies R Us. The boys just slept the whole time. They seem to enjoy the car and sleep very well while going for a ride.

Eye Doc & Pediatrician

Today was a busy day for the boys. We went for a follow-up visit to the eye doctor that saw them in the NICU. He did another eye exam and both boys look great, they are no longer at risk for ROP which can cause blindness for preemies. They will go back in March for a follow-up to check and see how their actual eyesight is.

The pediatrician also went well. He checked them over and said they look good. We go back to see Dr.McGrath next week for another check-up to make sure they are gaining weight and then their first vaccines will be at 2 months.

Homecoming

The boys were discharged from the NICU yesterday afternoon!! We knew Ryder might be coming home soon, but when we went to visit them on Sunday the nurse told us both boys were coming home Monday. Everything has been going well. It was somewhat of a long night because we have to wake them up every 3 hours to feed and not wait for them to wake up on their own. Also, they both decided night time was a good time to be awake and alert and not sleep.
We had the 1st of 4 home visits from a nurse today. She just checks their weight gain, eating and makes sure they look good overall. Zak is the same weight as he was 2 days ago so no gain, but also no loss. He is weighing 5lb 1.5oz. Ryder gained a little bit from discharge and is now weighing 3lb 15.5 oz. We go to the eye doctor tomorrow morning for a follow-up to their exam they had in the NICU. Also, we go see the pediatrician tomorrow. So a busy day.

Eating Update

Ryder is doing much better eating from the bottle. He will generally finish all of his bottle, sometimes leaving 10ml or less (he gets 30ml per feeding). The nurses said that he does better if they offer the bottle at every other feeding so he is not tired and will then take the whole bottle. So he is getting there. His weight from last night was 3lb 10.6oz. He also got his first bath the other afternoon which he seemed to enjoy.

Zak is doing better and recovering from his intestinal infection. He will be on antibiotics for 7 days so should be done them the end of the week. He is still receiving nutrients, fat, and antibiotics through IV. They did start to allow him to have a little milk. They started at 5ml every 3 hours and he did well so moved him to 10ml every 3 hours. Today they changed him to 15ml every 3 hours and he sucks the bottles down and wants more. So as long as his tummy and intestines tolerate the milk they will continue to slowly increase his feedings. His weight from last night was 5lb 1.8oz.