We were both pretty tired last night, so no update! Actually we don't have results from the sleep study yet, so there isn't anything to report yet there. We have an appointment with Dr. Stevens (Riley Pulmonologist) at 12:30 at Deaconess/Riley connection. The respiratory therapist running the study yesterday assured us that Dr. Stevens would certainly have the preliminary results, and possible the full report at our appointment. Gabe did sleep pretty well for the three hour test, so hopefully it is a good and reliable test, whatever the results. He was understandably pretty angry after they got all of the "stuff" on him. If you scroll down to the pictures of the first sleep study, you'll see how wrapped up he was. I'm impressed he could sleep at all! Anyway, he was hollering but we were able to settle him down and he conked out. While he was sleeping, we got a visit from nurse Laura. She was off, but came in to visit us (and probably primarily Gabe). I think he was pretty happy to see her when he woke up! I forgot my camera, so I was bummed not to get a picture of the little reunion. We did wander up to the NICU after all of our appointments were over for a little visit. Everyone told us how good he looked (and chubby!) and continued to back our decision to go home last month. Hopefully we will get through this winter without a trach/vent package, but even if we don't, we still feel good about taking him home without it. It has been a hectic but wonderful month at home as a family and although we have had our challenges, I don't think we would have had a glimmer of normalcy with a trach (beside the fact that we wouldn't even be home yet if we had the trach). I guess my point is (I do have one, every now and then) if the trach happens at some point, at least a portion of his babyhood got to be as close to normal at home as we could make it and we will have that to hold on to and treasure. BUT hopefully it won't be an issue at all ; )

We also had an appointment with developmental Peds, which was pretty good. We met with Dr. Stanley, and she comes to Evansville from time to time, so we should be able to meet with her down here at some point in the future. After a lot of discussion (we were very impressed with the amount of time she spent with us listening and processing our situation) she had some valid recommendations. One was zantac to address the amount of spitting up he still has. Since he is gaining weight VERY well, she wasn't really worried about the nutritional aspects of this issue, but more of an airway/aspiration concern. Another was some oral stimulation suggestions, especially since he seems to have completely lost interest in feeding orally. Because of his respiratory issues, she doesn't really want us to do much to push the oral feeds without a swallow study (which isn't news to us, we know this is an issue). Since we are coming back in October to meet with Neurology, she recommended getting an oximetry study? As it was explained to us, if I understood it correctly, this is a swallow study using pureed foods instead of liquids - since he will be about 4 and a half months old by then. Along with the feeding issue she asked us to seriously think about the Gtube. This would be a feeding tube surgically inserted directly into the stomach. She made some valid points about that, and since he hasn't taken anything significant by mouth in at least two weeks, I think we knew this conversation would be coming at some point. Her logic was if Gabe is really starting some oral aversion, the tube down the throat could be contributing significantly to that and the longer he has something going down his nose and throat, the more he could really dislike swallowing and hence getting nutrition orally. She said most families avoid it as long as possible, but once it becomes a inevitable, they usually wonder why they waited so long. The "pros" would be that it is apparently easier to feed him this way b/c we don't have to keep putting the tube down his nose (which is pretty unpleasant and could also be contributing to a lack of interest in eating) and it would be easier for others to care for him. The ultimate "pro" of going sooner rather than later, if the ng tube is really the reason for his oral aversions at this point, would be a hopefully smoother transition to taking purees and ultimately solids by mouth when he is old enough. This is all my interpretation of what we were told, hopefully I got it right. We will talk to Dr. Rouse Sept. 11th about his perspective on the Gtube and the sooner rather than later theory. By then we will have a better idea of whether or not he is going to do more orally. I think that is it. Isn't that enough?

Ok, we'll try to post more later when we know the results of the sleep study.