Last Wednesday I was home all day with Meredith, though her fever had decreased by Tuesday evening, because she had to be fever free without meds for 24 hours before she could go back to daycare. That day went okay. She was a bit fussier than normal and still was eating no more than 2.5 oz at a time.
So, by Thursday we were able to bring Meredith to daycare. That day I basically had a meltdown about Meredith's eating. I hadn't heard back from the feeding clinic and I knew my pediatrician would be out of the office on Friday - I just wanted to do something to try to improve how much Meredith ate. So, I called the pediatrician's office to try to get some advice from my pediatrician - I mean it had been almost a week of Meredith's poor eating. I also called the nurse practitioner at the feeding clinic and left a message. What makes all of this more frustrating is how my job is, I basically can't be reached at work. So, I call somewhere and leave a message, but have no phone number to have them call me back at because my cell phone doesn't work in the OR and I am hardly ever in one spot very long, and if I am it's because I'm in an OR and I can't exactly be taking personal phone calls when I'm taking care of a patient under anesthesia. I did call Jon and found out that he was actually home and thought that I'd have him take care of all of this - but I also felt that he had never been as concerned as I was about Meredith's eating and I wasn't going to take the usual, is she peeing, pooping and gaining weight questioning. Because she was doing all of those things, but in a lot less frequency than she had been and as far as gaining weight - she's up 0.2 lb, then down 0.2 lb, then up 0.4 lb, etc, etc. She isn't drastically losing weight, but she wasn't gaining by leaps and bounds either. And it was more than just how much she was eating - it was her behavior: the crying, the arching of her back, her general unhappiness with eating!
In the end, I decided to request for our pediatrician to call my cell phone anytime after 3pm so I could talk to her and I left a message for the feeding clinic to just leave a message on my voice mail. By noon that day the nurse at the feeding clinic had called me back and said they had Meredith on the schedule for a swallow study and upper GI Xrays, followed by a clinical feeding evaluation - on the following Wednesday. I immediately felt better, at least I was doing something to try and figure out what was going on!
My pediatrician did end up calling me that evening and we discussed what was going on. She's very laid back, which is probably good for me. She has never been all that concerned about Meredith's eating, though she is perfectly willing to humor me in my quest to correct it. We decided to try Meredith on Prilosec (a stronger reflux med). And then I told her about the swallow study appt and she was interested in seeing what we found. She didn't necessarily think Meredith has bad reflux, but didn't know what else could be the problem. I just wanted to rule out a physiological swallowing or reflux problem and then get an expert's opinion on her sucking and swallowing.
She had another weird day on Friday, eating only a couple of ounces every couple of hours. Then - all of the sudden on Saturday morning, Meredith took 4 oz, then the next few bottles she finished (between 4.5 and 5.5 oz). And now, ever since then she's taking between 5 and 6.5 oz a bottle 6 times a day. So what the heck changed? I have NO idea. We had given her the Prilosec for the first time Friday, but that usually takes days to a few weeks to really exert it's effects. She was and still is stuffy with snot and has a cough. Maybe she's a little less stuffy, I don't know.
The weekend was great. She was in a good mood when she was awake, was taking good naps, finishing her bottles - peeing and pooping up a storm and sleeping pretty restfully at night! It's amazing how much happier I am when she's doing well! We even started her on rice cereal for the first time Sunday night. And I would have to say she did better than I expected. She sat in her high chair and kind of opened her mouth. A lot of cereal came out of her mouth and I'm not sure how much she actually ate - but she didn't cry or fuss. Eventually, she stopped enjoying sitting in the high chair - so we were done. Now we've done rice cereal for 3 nights and it's going about the same, which is okay with me. I do still give her 4 oz in her bottle first (since that's where she still will be getting her calories and nutrients until she's spoon feeding well). I just want her to get used to the spoon and then maybe I'll cut her bottle back hoping she'll eat more cereal? We'll see!
So, after seeing that she did well at daycare on Monday with her bottles and after discussing it with Jon - we basically decided to cancel the Feeding Clinic appt for now. I did call the nurse practioner to get her opinion and she agreed that for now, maybe things will stay better. But if we have problems again in the future, we may end up doing it anyway. I went back and forth in my mind on whether or not to just do it. But it wasn't going to be a completely benigh test - they would've had to shove a tube down Meredith's nose and into her stomach. And we also had to consider the cost of paying our deductible and then 20% of the cost after that.
Yesterday afternoon after daycare Meredith had a meltdown when I was trying to feed her. I almost called the clinic back and put the appt back on. But I ended up getting Meredith to eat her bottle after changing her diaper and swaddling her. I think she was just tired, hungry, upset, poopy - all the same time. She continued to be fussy all evening, but still ate her bottles normally. I'm hoping she was just tired and had some diaper rash that was bothering her. She also decided to wake up for the day at 3:45 this morning. Luckily, Jon was already planning on bringing her to daycare this morning so I could take the day off. I tried to get Meri back to sleep, but ultimately just got her up, got her dressed, fed her and got her in her carseat for Jon and then I headed back to bed for a few hours. I can't tell you how valuable my sleep is to me. I need a day or two in the week to get a few extra hours of sleep! And now I have a few hours to get some errands down. I'm actually getting my oil changed right now and then have a few more errands to run before I pick Meredith up at daycare.
I hope that things continue to go well. I need a break from my own anxiety, it's very exhausting! This weekend Jon is leaving us, once again. He's going to Florida for another conference - so Meredith and I are heading down for a quick trip to Blue Earth. I hope all is well with everyone. I'm looking forward to life settling down a little and the weather getting better. And I hope to be making more plans to see friends and family now that Jon will be around a bit more and his call will lighten up for the next few months!
I'll get some pics added of her and her rice cereal eating when I get a chance!
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