Jesus in his heart

I've had a started draft of this post for several days but I had to go back for more edits today because the leading line was "we're finally home after an 8 night stay in the hospital." This was actually 6 days ago, and my apologies for not updating you all sooner :)

We were discharged with paperwork that read "Reason for admission: Failure to Thrive. Current Diagnosis: Failure to Thrive, Reflux."

First of all, we Praise our God for giving Will a good heart! His echo showed the murmer was minor and warranted no repair. We were able to watch the entire thing. Will was sedated (poor boy ended up sleeping the rest of the day), and it was just a very long and complete ultrasound. At one point, I looked up the screen and I saw JESUS! It was his face, his hair and his robe....he was looking over at Will, and He was in his heart! I'm serious, I had a peace after I saw Him, and knew that He was watching over our son. How cool is that?! Will had Jesus in his heart!

It took the last day of testing to prove what we were suspicious of the entire visit. Reflux. The doctors were very thorough, as I posted earlier, but they couldn't possibly believe that a baby could actually be deemed "failure to thrive" because of something as simple as reflux. Every baby has a slight case of reflux, with their immature inner workings...but others, however are very simply put "sick" with reflux. One doctor in particular, whom we have a scheduled appointment with in September states in his book, Colic Solved the sad truth that babies, especially the ones who don't spit up, are constantly overlooked when they are in fact, very sick. So sick to the point that they don't want to eat (because it hurts), they don't want to sleep (or they wake themselves up frequently), and the don't grow very well (because they don't want to eat). Sounds familiar to me.

I'm glad we got to the bottom of Will's issues. Besides the reflux we suspected all along, the Upper G.I. showed he has delayed gastric emptying....in other words, he stays fuller longer because his tummy doesn't do it's job in pushing the food out as well as it should.

I know some may have criticized me in the past saying that I should have been feeding him more all along, or possibly even changing his main food supply to formula rather than breastmilk. The fact is I DO feed him as much as he will eat. I wake the boy up to eat, even when he shows no hunger signs. At the end of our nursing periods, I attempt to give him milk I've pumped off. But until now, he showed no interest in eating more. He was full. NO WONDER! And as far as formula vs. breastmilk, breastmilk is the best food for Will and his reflux. It is easily and quickly digested. This means less acid to come back up all day long. It also contains a natural antacid that helps his cause. We are, however adding those 2 formula-infused breastmilk bottles that contain a rice starch thickener to help with the reflux, and add a little more calories (and a red rash he doesn't usually wear on his hind-parts).

The doctors added a third medication to Will's daily doses, in order to improve his motility. I have to say I now have a PIGGY for a son! I have NEVER seen him eat so much in a day, I think he's gained 2 pounds since we've been home! LOL! It really seems to have improved his hunger, but I'll have to give it a few more days to take shape before I really say whether I like how upset his tummy seems to be from it. I will be so glad when he doesn't have to be medicated every day! But for now, we have a better handle on his reflux and motility, and his arching has improved dramatically! We are praying he grows out of the reflux and d.g.e.

As far as our hospital stay....
It's funny how we'll miss those wonderful nurses who interrupted us every 4 hours to take vitals :) They were so helpful and encouraging during our stay. It almost seems like they weren't just doing a job, but also showing us love.

One evening I was crying in the waiting area of our floor, because they had poked Will 4 different times looking for a good vein to insert the I.V. He was SCREAMING and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I asked Billy to take over at the foot of Will's bed, and I quietly left the room...and took a walk. A nurse I hadn't met stopped to console me, and offered encouragement for my weary heart. She periodically checked on Will thereafter.

One afternoon they were drawing blood and our sweet nurse thought it would be better to remove him from his "fun room" and do the mean things somewhere else. While I stood by Will's side, kissing his little face, I saw that she had made a good poke on the first try! I said "Oh wow, thank you so much for getting it the first time!" she said "don't thank me, I was talking to the man upstairs". Billy told me later that when she came in to get him for the draw, he had the praise baby dvd running, and she curiously was asking about it. I think she felt comfortable later, letting us know she too was a believer.

Another day, while visiting the milk bank, I overheard one of the lactation consultants introducing her coworker to an emotional mom. She said "this is my good Christian sister and anytime you need her to pray with you about your son, she's here too". So on one of my weary moments, guess what I did? I asked her to pray with me! She held my hands firmly and we prayed in the spirit together! Then she sent me on my way with prayer cards to claim for our son, and a whole packet of healing scriptures.

We praise God for the knowledge we now have concerning our son and his health. He has a good brain, heart, thyroid, pancreas, liver, kidneys, bladder and gallbladder! He doesn't have cistic fibrosis and the issues he has faced up to now will be gone and outgrown in no time! It's not too often you find out so many things about your kids health this early, but we're thankful we did.

He is STRONG and the boy is getting FAT I tell ya'!