Yada Yada Yada

Yesterday, Henry spent some time in the morning with Grandpa Kenski. Jeff and I were a little concerned about his rapid weight gain from Wednesday. When we weighed him Thursday morning, he was 10 lbs 9.5 ozs. Looking at our tracking of his input/output, we felt that some of his gain the previous day probably wasn't real. So, we gave him 2 ozs of a concoction of half prune/half water. And, yada yada yada, when we reweighed him a few hours later, he was 10 lbs 7 ozs.

He had a good Thursday...until we took him to Sonora Quest for yet another round of blood tests. I asked the tech why they did the blood draws from the veins, when in the NICU, they did it from the heel. I guess, despite the fact that I told the techs on prior visits that Henry was a preemie, they kept looking at his birth age instead of his gestational age and said that the blood had to come from his veins. The tech yesterday said that he was probably too old for the heel stick because of callouses on the feet that make the heel sticks less effective at drawing out blood. Ummm...doesn't one need to walk on one's feet in order to develop callouses? At 2.5 months (age adjusted), my son has no callouses on his feet. The tech said that she was willing to give the heel stick a try. Jeff held Henry, while tech stuck his foot with a needle. No problems with getting blood, except that Henry was very upset (probably brought back bad memories from the NICU when he was stuck 6 times/day) and was kicking. The tech said that he had a very strong kick. This actually helped with getting the blood to drip out.

I'm hoping that we'll hear from Dr. Bianchi this morning with the results. We are hoping that his TSH levels continue to decline (TSH measures how hard the body is working to produce the thyroid hormone), and we are hoping that his Alkaline-Phosphorous levels have significantly decreased since his stay in the NICU. Although there is some debate in the literature about the interpretation of the Alk-Phos test, many believe that it is a measure of the body breaking down bones to get the minerals it needs. In Henry's case, the question is: Is his body continuing to break down his bones to acquire calcium and phosphorous that he needs? He was on Lasix (a diuretic) during the first two-thirds of his NICU stay. The diuretic was needed, because the kidneys needed assistance doing a job that they shouldn't have had to do for another three months. An unfortunate side effect of diuretics is that it strips the body of calcium and phosphorous. This leads to poor bone density. And that can lead to rickets and bone fractures.

Our walks with Henry in the mornings and evenings have been very pleasant. Henry has been staying awake longer and longer for them. He used to pass out halfway through the walks. Last night, we ran into one of our neighbors, Hal. Hal said it was the first time that he'd ever seen Henry awake. He's looking forward to Henry getting older so that he can play catch with him.

Grandma and Grandpa Kenski came over in the evening to hold Henry while watching the World Series. Grandpa is going to teach Henry all about baseball. Henry already has a Diamondbacks hat. Henry slept through most of the game, except when he got up to drink his bottles. Jeff and I slept as well. When the grandparents left, Jeff took over. Henry slept and ate. He is definitely sleeping better, but we are still having problems getting Henry to sleep in his crib. After Jeff put what looked to be a very sleepy child in the crib, Henry lasted only 15 minutes. The game plan is to try to spend more time in the bedroom during the day, so that he gets used to the crib. Henry doesn't seem to have any problems sleeping in his bassinet (that's in the living room). But the bassinet doesn't have a surface that will accommodate the Angelcare monitor. At least, he is sleeping now. It is often a light sleep, but we'll take it!

We went on a beautiful walk this morning. Grandpa is watching over Henry now. Jeff and I weighed Henry a few minutes ago. He weighed 10 lbs 11 ozs...but no prune juice today, so we suspect that some of that is measurement artifact. ;)