Lucas is still doing well adjusting to his home life. We started daycare at the Children's Respite Care Center which specializes in children with physical and mental development issues. Its one of the few places that will feed Lucas using his g-tube and luckily, Medicaid pays for it until he's one. He's still not eating half or more of his food orally (by bottle) most days, but when he eats, he's doing much better at not choking and we've gotten him to where he can eat breastmilk without the formula mix without choking. He has had some crazy spit up moments, like today when he spit up 5 times within 2 hours, but we've been lucky too that he hasn't had a fever yet or any infections.
At his last doctors appointment, the doctor said that Lucas hasn't been gaining enough weight. We increased his feeding volume again to get him more calories. We hope to get his weight gain under control soon so we can start introducing baby food. She said there is a small window for preemies to get them eating baby food before they start having issues accepting new textures and tastes so we want to start that very soon. Lucas got his 6 month vaccinations at this appointment too, which went better than I thought. He screamed for a few minutes and then went to sleep!
We have several appointments coming up. He has an appointment with the feeding specialist, the surgeon to check his g-button and see if he needs a bigger one, the bone study to measure his arms and legs, the development evaluation with the Omaha Public Schools developmental network program, ophthalmologist apt. and the appointment with the geneticist to read his bone study. On top of that, we have mommy appointments, daycare scheduling, holidays and birthdays. I think that the two things new parents should know is A. you will be tired for a long time and B. You will always be running around -- and yet, not burning more calories than before! Its still worth it :)
