Marco's Journey

3 months. 4 weeks, adjusted. Here we go again. I was so naive to think Marco would come home and be completely healthy. After almost 2 weeks at home, 2 doc visits, 2 eating/speech therapist sessions, and 1 overnight ER stint for a false alarm wheezing situation, Marco went on a hunger strike. Back to the hospital we go. I suppose it isn’t truly readmission, as we are now at a different children’s hospital near our home, instead of the NICU… but close enough. He was doing well the first week. Eating, sleeping and gaining weight as he should. He had a little trouble with the bottle (some signs of distress like gulping, poor latch, wheezing) - nothing so bad that it prevented eating, however it was still recommended that we see a speech therapist who specializes in all things swallowing/throat/etc. with the goal of helping Marco improve his skills - suck, swallow, breathe. At first I was super skeptical - he was gaining weight, he was peeing, he was eating (messily, but eating). He was a ...

108 long days after my water broke and our journey began, Marco is finally home! All day I've been in disbelief that it was finally our turn. Our turn to joyfully go up to the front desk at the hospital and announce we'll be leaving with our boy. It was such a shock - we really thought we had at least another week, but a few days ago Marco decided it was time to start eating for real. Last entry I spoke about the swallowing scan they did to see how he was eating. They tried two things after that: faster nipple (for easier flow) and thicker food (Similac for Spit Up) for his reflux. It was magic. He gobbled up that formula like it was the most natural thing in the world. He went from 10-20% of his feeds through the bottle, to 100% in a little over 3 days! We got the call on Saturday that he was doing great and they thought he would be able to go home on Tuesday this week. My first reaction was to cry from happiness. A close second was to say "oh crap". We had so much t...

3 months (almost), 5 days adjusted. What we thought would be a truly amazing Independence Day with Marco, was in reality just another day in the NICU. Baby boy is 8pds, 8oz of snuggly goodness, but despite hitting his due date, he still can’t join us at home because he hasn’t mastered eating. Thankfully, he seems to be getting better each day at sucking/swallowing so we may be able to bring him home soon! I'm trying to manage my expectations and keep 3-4 weeks in my head, so that I'm not super disappointed if he doesn't come home earlier - but hearing from the nurse practitioner (NP) that it could be earlier, potentially 2 weeks, was such an amazing, amazing, amazing feeling. First time in a while that I've been able to see the end. Eating update: We did an eating X-ray this past week and it went well. Saw minimal aspiration, which means the milk is going where it should. They also learned Marco does much better with faster flow nipples (easier to get milk, takes less e...