What A Difference

Since we started giving James the new formula yesterday afternoon, he's only had two tiny spit-ups -- a dramatic and welcome difference from the way things have been recently. (We had started to think of it as "a good night" when he only had several small spit-ups and not a big vomit, and it had become routine to have to do a full load of laundry at least once a day because of all the burp cloths, blankets, and outfits that had spit-up on them. We were getting to dread his feeding times because it made all of us miserable to see him in pain.) Overnight, he didn't have any spit-ups at all, and he's had no trouble with his medicine doses, either. And he just seems happier and more comfortable. Such a relief -- let's hope this trend continues!

He didn't take big volumes of food from the bottle today, but he did very well with the smaller amounts -- he drank them smoothly and quickly. He still has some reflux (of course; although the new formula seems to be helping to manage it, the underlying problem is one that he just has to grow out of), and I think it's showing up more with the bottle-feeding than the tube feeding. Essentially, he starts out really well, but then if you move him (to burp, for instance), he has a hard time getting in a comfortable position again. But hopefully we'll start to see some improvement in this, too, so that we can work back up to the larger amounts. And he still does get a little uncomfortable sometimes during his tube feedings, but my impression is that it may be gas more than reflux, and he's usually pretty easy to soothe if I pick him up (which was not the case before).

So, bravo for the speech therapist! We are so grateful to her!

Tomorrow we'll be meeting with the Early Intervention coordinator for the hearing services program. (The days without appointments are very nice, but second-best is when they come to us, like the EI people are doing.)

[Bottom picture is Mattie.]