Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Oh my gosh, it's a baby! (106 days)

We're coming to you live from the ICC overnight room at Children's Hospital, where Bryce is being cared for exclusively by Mommy and Daddy. No tubes, no nurses, no doctors -- just a crib, a few blankets, a portable apnea monitor and a couple of very excited parents!

In truth, I won't be able to post this message until we get home because of the draconian filtering policies in place on Children's computer networks (apparently, "blogger" is a dirty word). However, things are going great so far! Bryce gained a modest amount of weight (10 grams) after his first day of ad-lib feeding, and he seems to be doing good today as well.

Most of his tests were done yesterday. Bryce's eyes are still improving; in fact, they look good enough that the opthamologist considered scheduling his next appointment two weeks out, but decided to do one more weekly exam since he is still a few days shy of the magic "40 weeks" corrected age. More importantly, they've arranged his next appointment at their outpatient clinic!

The head ultrasound was normal, and his renal scan was pretty good too. The latter showed mild vesicoureteral reflux, which means that urine sometimes travels backward from his bladder to his kidneys (eww). Apparently, it's somewhat common in preemies, and the only thing they do at this stage is send him home on prophylactic antibiotics to prevent urinary tract infections. Unfortunately, this means Bryce gets to add a urologist to the growing list of specialists he'll be following up with regularly.

We reluctantly surrendered Bryce for a little over an hour in the afternoon so that he could do his car seat trial. He passed easily, but definitely did not enjoy it; I stood at his side and gently rocked the seat for the entire hour to keep him calm. Despite his surly attitude, I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of tiny little Bryce in his huge car seat; he's so small that we have to use rolled-up blankets to keep him in place!

So, our little fighter has passed through his pre-discharge gauntlet with nary a scratch on him, and the doctor has officially certified him "ready-to-go". Now, we're just waiting for Bryce to show us that he can thrive on long-term (i.e., more than a day) ad-lib feedings. If he can push the needle on the scale past 2750 grams at midnight tonight, Christie may very well get the best birthday present ever, but even if tomorrow's not the day, all the staff seems confident that Bryce will skedaddle before the week is done. Regardless, Christie and I thoroughly enjoyed our long-awaited day with Bryce; when he's ready for us, we're ready for him.

Since Bryce is busy napping and I've got nothing better to do (hah!), here's a little more fun with numbers:
Total # of days in hospital
Mommy 120 (consecutive!)
Daddy 113 (stupid cold!)
Bryce 106
Annual healthcare cost to date
Bryce $965,227
Mommy $74,782
Daddy $121 (hah, I win!)
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2 comments:

  1. I'm closely keep track of your family! I'm glad you're finally getting some good news! I hope to meet Bryce soon!

    Karl

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