Hospital Trip #2

On Thursday, May 22 we went to the pediatrician, Dr. Peterson, for Russell's two week check-up.  We stayed for about two hours.  Russell has not gained any weight in 10 days.  Since he is supposed to be at birth weight (7-9 and he is about 7-7), Dr. Peterson was concerned.  He talked to two cardiologists (ours and the on-call doc) and they all agreed Russell should stay a couple of days at the hospital to try and determine if it was his heart or just the Downs.  Apparently, Downs babies are slow to eat, get tired often and slow to gain weight. Russell sleeps except to eat and a few other rare occasions.

So off to Swedish, First Hill we went.  This is a great hospital for babies and is blocks from the cardiologists. We would prefer going back to Children's since, if he had to have surgery, that's where it would be. But they have a high level NICU (if I remember correctly).

As soon as we heard we were going to the hospital, we called our parents. My parents, of course, dropped everything and came up to get Travis.  They took Travis to JT's graduation and he got to spend the night with them in Port Orchard.  Matt's parents are in town as well and got to visit a little bit.

The on-call cardiologist (who we were supposed to see originally but couldn't get into), Dr. Kraybill, put Russell on another med that helps his heart pump more efficiently. She said they try not to do surgery until at least 3 months.  They will do it sooner, if necessary.

They did a chest x-ray.  I don't know the results but Dr. Kraybill is trying to get the x-ray from Children's to compare.  We will probably do another echo on Friday.

A different doctor put Russell on a little bit of oxygen since his numbers would drop to 88 and 89 once in a while.  They like the number to be as close to 100 as possible.  It's hard to see my precious baby with tubes in his nose but there was an immediate improvement so it's worth it.

Right now, it's 3:30 am and Russell and Matt are sleeping.  Matt woke me when he came to bed and I can't get back to sleep.  Just trying to digest everything. I'm scared but trying to be calm and realistic. Nobody seems to be nervous, except me, so that's comforting.

Sounds like we are staying until Russell gains weight. She also put him on a higher calorie formula to try and get him to help him with that.