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the eric update - day 92: a third gregorian monthly birthday! reflux disappears!

it's hard to believe that it's not his first not his second but his third gregorian monthly birthday! we celebrated by spending a little quality time on my chest.

amazingly, he's continuing to gain weight at a stupendous pace and is flying past the 5 pound mark and weighed in at 2,380 grams or about 5 pounds 4 ounces!

we didn't have any cake on hand for his birthday, but we did have a little reglan which seems to be doing a good job of controlling his reflux. if fact, it's doing such a great job that his doctor's don't think that he's going to need surgery! that's right, just four days ago it seemed inevitable that he'd need some sort of surgery, but today his doctors said that he's doing so much better that he'll likely not need any surgery afterall. oddly, they don't even want to do another upper GI to see if the volume at which he starts to reflux has changed, since it seemed to be such an important number to everyone.

his progress has been truly remarkable, especially over the past couple of days. he's pretty much completely stopped spitting up and blowing milk out his nose and, more importantly, his blood oxygen and heartrate levels have greatly stabilized. last week, even when he wasn't spitting up, his heartrate would oscillate up and down, varying by as much as 40 beats per minute; the variations in his heartrate were caused by milk entering his esopagus and stimlulating his vagus nerve which helps to control how fast the heart is beating. in the past few days, these variations have greatly decreased and occasionally they'll disappear entirely after an hour has passed after feeding.

so was it the reglan? the rice? the weight gains? the time taken to get acclimated to the new environment and recover the ROP surgery? who knows - maybe all the above. it's hard to describe the feeling of having something like severe reflux just dispappear. poof. will it come back, if he gets stressed out after coming home? i guess we'll find out soon, since there really aren't too many reasons left for us to be in the nicu!

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10/04/2004 11:37:00 PM 12 comments

12 Comments:

Maybe a combo of all of those. But, anyway, it might be worth experementing with a lesser dose of reglan to see if the reflux starts coming back or if there is a noticable difference, simply because of the risks of reglan. If the rice is doing the job by itself, then it would be nice to know. On the other hand, it could be that the reglan is starting to work and it has nothing to do with the rice. I guess there is no way of telling unless you want to experiment with dosages and amounts. Heck, maybe it's the infant massage you've been doing ;-)
At any rate, the lessened reflux means he might get to go home sooner! Any target dates yet?
C

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:37 PM  

Great news! I hope this means that you really are heading home soon....(touch wood)

NordicMamma

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:00 PM  

when do we get to see another one of your fantastic videos? miss seeing them. Of course you are busy so we will be patient. little eric is lookin so CUTE!!! :))

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:53 PM  

Grandma Sondra and Grandpa Eric know why his condition changed suddenly after their visit to the NICU, or for those of different faiths, we "believe" in Eric's continued progress. Call it what you will, but have faith (whether you choose luck, or doctors, or God) and positive results will happen.

LOL... Grandpa E

PS. I choose God!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:03 PM  

Hurray for Eric IV! I love looking at all the pictures, it's the hi-lite of my day!
Good news about the reflux! There is just nothing like the power of prayer!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:03 PM  

Oh, woo hoo for the good news! I can't tell you how encouraging reading your daily posts has been to me. I'm 33 weeks pregnant and have been experiencing pre-term laborish activity for about 10 weeks, and since I've started following little Eric's progress, I've been much less antsy about the whole thing. Which is not, please understand, an attempt to minimize the very real struggle this has been for him, you, and Kris, but to tell you that what you've done by sharing this experience has helped someone you'll likely never even know.

He's such a beautiful baby. I cry happy tears for him each day that things go well and tears of prayer each day things do not. Continued blessings to all three of you.

Paige in Spokane

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:25 PM  

This is such great news indeed and makes my heart so happy. My heart has been so heavy for you guys over this past week with all of the 'bad' news. I'm on cloud nine because of little Eric's sudden progress. I sincerely hope that it won't be long know until he is at home. You guys continue to be in my prayers.

Tina

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:44 PM  

At any rate, the lessened reflux means he might get to go home sooner! Any target dates yet? |

no word yet. but reading the tea leaves while knocking on wood, and i'm be super confident that he won't be here for his fourth gregorian birthday :-) probably a lot sooner. that said, we learned the hard way to be wary of the curse of the nicu and i wouldn't believe anybody if they told me a date anyways :-)

Which is not, please understand, an attempt to minimize the very real struggle this has been for him, you, and Kris, but to tell you that what you've done by sharing this experience has helped someone you'll likely never even know. |

thank you for leaving such a wonderful comment paige. i know there's more than a few parents reading who are either facing a stay in the nicu or are currently in the early stages of it and i'm proud that this site might in some small way help you and others in the future. best wishes to you and may you keep experiencing preterm laborish activity for many more weeks :-) keep me posted.


thanks to everyone for leaving such nice comments.

By Blogger e3, at 7:15 PM  

Excellent news! I hope you get your little boy home soon~

By Blogger Gab, at 12:08 AM  

I am so happy to hear the great news about E4! It is great news to come back and read after four days. Ricky came home from the hospital yesterday and I hope that your little guy will soon too. :) :) :)

By Blogger Unknown, at 11:33 AM  

when do we get to see another one of your fantastic videos? miss seeing them. |

ahhh yes, the videos :-) i had another one nearly finished right before the computer crashed. no, i hadn't saved the movie once during the editing process so i lost everything! but the real problem is that the new nicu doesn't let me bring in a computer to the room, so i don't have any time to make the movies now. so you might have to wait a little while longer :-)


Ricky came home from the hospital yesterday and I hope that your little guy will soon too. :) :) :) |

thanks becky! and congratulations on getting ricky home again!

By Blogger e3, at 2:57 PM  

Happy 13 week yesterday and 3 month birthday today, grandson! It's taken awhile to post this message because I have been anxiously awaiting the news of when you be breaking out of there. It looks like I will have to wait until you are buckled in your car seat. Even though I will not be able to see you for awhile, I will be talking to you on the phone soon. I know that you are getting stronger every day. When Pops has time, he will have to finish another movie. All of your family and fans are anxious to see you in action. I know that you have changed so much since the last one - you must have lots of new moves. In the meantime, hold Mom and Pops fingers tight. You are such a big boy now! Love, Gwanmanman Sherry

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:15 AM  

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