Paige's Appointment

Today was Paige's apnea clinic appointment at Georgetown and it was great.  Getting to and from Georgetown isn't the most fun, but well worth the clinic experience. We were given the options to follow-up at Georgetown, Fairfax and Children's.  At first, my plan was to go to Children's....until I found out that Georgetown's clinic is the only one run by neonatologists.  The others are run by pediatric pulmonologists.  The best part is that it isn't just an apnea clinic to manage the monitor. It's also a high risk preemie clinic for NICU graduates, so they will help the pediatrician to manage their growth and development, control their reflux, tweak their medications, and follow their labs. So wonderful!

Today, they spent about an hour with me going through everything.  Paige weighed in today at 6 POUNDS 6 OUNCES!!!  I was shocked!  And so were they:)  She has gained so much at such a fast rate that we are dropping back her calories a little bit.  We also are weaning her reflux meds since she isn't symptomatic at this point.  Her monitor had 9 "real events" since discharge, which is pretty good.  We need to go three weeks without an event though to get rid of the machine.  We did get advanced to only use it when she sleeps though. I cannot tell you how HUGE this is!  The stupid monitor alarms ALL the time. And poor Kodi goes crazy because it is SO loud.  We even had to warn our neighbors since it sounds like our fire alarm is going off all the time.  We'll go back in another month to download the data and see if she's outgrown these events.

At the end of our visit, I talked with them a bit about Andrew and some of his issues.  They told me to make an appointment for him next time, too.  Even after we are off the monitor, they will continue to follow them both for quite a while. This is another huge relief.  Its another resource for both us and our pediatrician.  The pediatricians are great with well babies, but the nutrition and calorie management isn't usually their thing, and they aren't as good at the reflux, anemia, and some of the other preemie issues.  Even with the new pediatrician, who I like, I still felt a bit alone in trying to tweak their calories and advocate for the NICU requests, since they often differ for the primary care practice.  This clinic will manage all of that and take another weight off my shoulders.  For that, I am super thankful.

Tomorrow is our one day without doctor appointments this week (hooray!).  We try to plan our baths on days that we don't have to leave the house since they drop their temps so much with that (hopefully they will maintain a little better soon...)  So that is on the agenda for tomorrow morning...and I may even sneak out of the house for an hour or two to try to buy a couple Christmas presents. I love the holidays and usually have all my presents purchased and wrapped at this point.  This year, I don't have much.  Except for all the gifts I keep ordering online for the babies:)  We did manage to put up our tree this weekend though.  I was determined to get this done since we are stuck in all the time. Now it's starting to feel like Christmas!

Paige & Andrew's first tree!

Look how our family has grown!

Cross your fingers for a good sleeping night for the babies tonight - we could sure use it!