Shots and Surgeons

Today's lesson: if the baby falls asleep at a good time, don't wake him up just to change a pee diaper. (Because if his name is Matthew, he then won't want to go to sleep again!)

The boys had to go in for their Synagis shots today. Matthew weighed 14 lbs, 11 oz, and this bumped him up to having the medicine administered in two shots instead of one -- poor kid! (We think Matthew might have gone through a growth spurt in Florida. He was eating up a storm, and he felt noticably heavier.) James was 13 lbs, 6 oz. Both of them did fine with the shots; the usual bit of upset when the injection happened and then a quick recovery.

Then we had to go over to the hospital for a surgery follow-up appointment for James. Everything still looked fine, and the surgeon is planning on May for the reconnection surgery. (It's funny; the way he said it was as if he expected us to be pushing for an earlier date. But we figure that he knows best about what will give the best chances for a successful procedure.) Here's the difference between me and Mike -- Mike thinks that having the reconnection is a good birthday present, whereas I think that having to have surgery and then be in the hospital for 7-10 days to recover is a pretty crappy birthday present. Since James is stuck with it either way, I suppose it's better to look on the bright side.

James was giving the surgeon nice big smiles -- which was kind of funny, since usually James smiles at people who are smiling at him, and the surgeon was all business.

While we were there, the nurse practioner put in a new Mickey button (the g-tube apparatus that sits on the outside of his skin and has the tube going into his stomach). We didn't realize that this was going to happen, but we're glad it did. His original button was getting a bit gunky looking, and when she looked at the water in the balloon, it was a bit discolored, which suggested that it might have a leak. (The tube is held in place by a tiny water-filled balloon that's at the end of the tube inside the stomach; when it's inflated, the tube won't slide out the hole in the skin.) It took her all of about ten seconds to whip out the old button and put in the new one. "Next time, you'll do it and I'll supervise," she said. (Ack!) She asked how we would know that it was in the stomach, and we gave the answer we'd learned in the NICU for if the button falls out -- "X-ray!" Nope, she said, you know it's in the stomach if you put a syringe on it and stomach fluids come out (which she did and they did). I suppose in her case you also know from replacing about a zillion of them. :)

Afterwards, we went upstairs and got to visit with two of James's (and our) favorite NICU nurses. Even though James was overdue for a nap, he was very happy to see them! One of them even made him laugh. It was a great way to end the day.