A Good Week!

I took Colby to our pediatrician's office this morning for his 4th Synagis Shot and a weight check. As always, I was very nervous to have him weighed! I obsess more over his weight than I have ever obsessed over my own, and that is saying a lot!

Fortunately, we had a good number this week!! Colby is up to 12 lb 14 oz!! This means he has gained 12 oz in two weeks!! Not too bad for our little heart baby...that is almost an ounce a day!!

Colby goes back next week for his 6 month well visit. Yes, I said 6 months! It is hard to believe that he will be 6 months old next week! If he can gain an ounce a day until that appt, he will have doubled his birth weight by 6 months! A month ago I would have never thought this would be possible! We are thrilled that he is doing this well!! At his 6 month visit, he will also have to get a flu shot on top of his immunizations. Poor baby is always getting poked, but if it will help him to not get the flu, we are all for it!

Colby has also had a good week of sleeping, which I'm nervous to even mention. I do not want to jinx this!!! He is in his own room again (the first time since before his ER visit and surgery), and he is apparently loving it! Daddy is loving it too!! I kind of miss having him so close, but I know it is better for him to be in his comfy crib in his room! I am just so excited that he seems to like his bed!!





Please remember the Blood Drive coming up February 14th!! We still have some open slots that we need to fill!! If you are interested, please contact us with a comment or an email to jbbhitchcock@gmail.com. Thank you to all that have already signed up. We have had such a great response! God has blessed us with so many wonderful friends and family! We truly appreciate your willingness to help Colby and others that will need to receive blood from the Red Cross!

BLOOD DRIVE

OK, the time is almost here for Colby's first annual blood drive. We finally received the schedule and are able to make appointments. The drive will run from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm on Saturday February 14th at Hendersonville Church of Christ. If you are interested in donating please send us an e-mail to jbbhitchcock@gmail.com or post a comment on the blog.....



Time slots are open from 9-2 in 15 minute intervals. We are trying to book as many appointments as possible to keep anyone from having to wait in line. We will be able to accept walk-ins but they have asked us to get a list of potential walk-ins as well. Our goal is to make this as quick and painless as giving blood can be......



If you are a little afraid of needles or prefer not to give of your fluids that is fine to we have several non blood related areas that we could use some help in on that day. We are looking for some volunteers to help sign people in, volunteers to donate homemade baked goods, volunteers to pass out snacks to everyone after they donate. If you are interested in any of the above fun activities let us know via e-mail.

Colby has set a goal of 75 donors so please help us reach our goal and furthermore please help to re-stock the blood bank for all of the families that face emergency surgeries everyday.....

Please see the Hendersonville Church of Christ website for directions to the church. I've included the link below...

http://www.hendcoc.com/directions.php

Colby is keeping us on our toes!

On Friday of last week, I took Colby to the pediatrician's office for his every other week weight check. I mentioned to the nurse that he had been breathing really fast since Thursday afternoon. I didn't think much of it, because he has had a problem with fast breathing for a couple of weeks now and our cardiologist is aware of it. As she listened to his heart and counted his respirations, I could tell she was a little concerned. Jason and I have gotten pretty good at reading the faces of Colby's doctors and nurses! It turns out that his respiration rate was 95...way too high! He normally is around mid 50s. His sats were also higher than usual at 94%. High sats at this point is a sign for concern. His sats should be around 80 now. Then came the weight check. I always dread this part! Colby had only gained 5 oz in 2 weeks.

With all of these concerns, the nurse went to get a doctor to examine Colby just to make sure that everything was okay. The doctor's first thought, and mine as well, was that he was sick with a cold, flu, or RSV. After checking his ears, throat, nose, lungs, etc, she quickly ruled that out...thank goodness. Colby was as healthy as could be. This was great news, but it made his fast breathing that more puzzling! So, she called to consult Dr. Liske to see what he wanted us to do. Dr. Liske was concerned but not overly concerned. He seemed to think it was probably fine, but he told us to go back to the pediatrician on Tuesday for another exam. We left the office with me of course a little nervous! It is not easy to watch your baby panting helplessly while just sitting still!

Tuesday morning, we went back to the doctor as directed. We weighed first this time, and immediately got great news!! Colby had gained 6 oz from Friday to Tuesday! He is now up to 12 lb 8 oz!!! I love when he has a good weight gain. Then came the bad news. His respiration rate was now over 100. Dr. Hudson examined him and then left the room to call Dr. Liske once again. The appointment ended with Dr. Liske telling me over the phone to come on out to his office at Vanderbilt. I was fine with this, because at this point, I'm pretty worried about our little Colby!

When we got to Dr. Liske's, they did an EKG and checked his blood pressure, sats, etc as always. Then, we waited to see Dr. Liske. After a quick exam, Dr. Liske seemed pleased with how Colby looked and sounded. His respiration rate was now in the mid 50s. Amazing! I guess Dr. Liske just has the magic touch! Dr. Liske even told us that he thinks Colby is getting over the hump after his surgery. He is hopeful that Colby will continue to improve and gain weight from this point forward. We are very hopeful for this as well!!! All of my worry for nothing! Dr. Liske said he will continue to have these fast breathing spells...it is unfortunately just part of it!

Dr. Liske gave us a little bit of good news, too. He showed us Colby's growth curve. Colby is no longer on the growth chart (since his surgery), but he is following the curve perfectly. I am so happy that he is gaining!! To help him continue gaining, we are going to try increasing the calories of his milk once again. We have been using corn oil, which takes the milk to 24 cal/oz. Now, we are going to use corn oil, formula concentrate (liquid), and rice cereal. I feel like a bar tender preparing a mixed drink each time I make a bottle. If it works, though, it is so worth it! Please pray that Colby is able to tolerate the formula concentrate. The nutritionist seems to think that the liquid may work better than the powdered formula did. I sure hope so, because he was not a fan of the powdered formula!!!

So, we managed to avoid another hospital stay...thank goodness!! I guess Colby just missed Dr. Liske and wanted to see him sooner than our 6 week scheduled visit! Colby continues to amaze me with how happy he is, even with his extremely fast breathing. If I were panting like he does, I would probably be miserable! Our little Colby is not, though. He is just as smiley and happy as ever! He is such an inspiration!

Brody's Big Night Out

Last Saturday night, Jason took Brody to his first Tractor Pull! If you have been around Brody lately, you know how obsessed he is with tractors and trucks, so for him, this was absolute heaven!! To make the night even more fun, his cousin Emilee and Uncle Jeremy went too! Emilee's birthday was last week, so I was glad that Brody got to spend some special birthday time with her! It is hard to believe that she is already 5 years old...Happy Birthday Emilee!!

In Brody's words, the tractors were "too loud," so he covered his ears and occasionally daddy's ears. Emilee is such a good cousin...she helped him cover his ears a few times and even put his hood up for extra coverage!

Great Report for Colby

Today's visit with Dr. Liske went better than expected. We are excited to report that Colby is at home tonight with no feeding tube!!!! We are so thankful that he has once again escaped this process for now. Colby has gained 2/3 of an ounce a day for the past two weeks! This takes his weight to 11 lb 12 oz. Dr. Liske was very pleased with this, and so are we!

The rest of the check up went well too! His sats and blood pressure are good, and Dr. Liske said his shunt is still sounding great! He is still breathing pretty fast during feedings, but he is learning to deal with this by taking frequent breaks. It is funny to watch him. When he gets to breathing too fast, he will turn his head away and catch his breath. Then, when he is ready to eat again, he will just open his mouth wide and look at us...he looks like a baby bird waiting for a worm!

Dr. Liske was pleased enough with Colby's check up today that he feels we can spread out our appointments once again. We will not go back for 6 weeks. He also wants us to take our weight checks from once a week to every other week. This is probably a good idea with all of the sickness going around. We don't want to spend too much time waiting in a doctor's office.

So, other than weight checks, it looks like Colby will be doctor appointment free until January 30th when we go for his next Synagis shot. This will be a nice break! We won't know what to do with ourselves!

Thank you all for the continued prayers and support! We truly appreciate each and every one of you! Don't forget February 14th!! We will hopefully have more information from the Red Cross soon. We will get the link up to sign up for a time to donate as soon as possible!