Keep Arms and Hands Inside the Ride at All Times

As many of you already know, Carter has streptococcal pneumonia.
He is OK and we are home.

We noticed a day or two ago that he had developed a cough so we've been trying to keep an eye on him for any changes. I also thought I heard some wheezing, but Brad didn't hear it. When I got home from work this morning, Carter coughed and it sounded really "junky" and Brad said he'd been gagging on lots of mucous (yummy, I know). My Mom (a nurse) stopped by this morning and remarked that she heard him wheezing. That kinda sealed the deal and I called his pediatrician who said to bring him in.

Dr. M listened to his lungs and thought she could hear some decreased breath sounds on the left side and also bowel sounds up near his arm pit on the left side (the side of his hernia) so she ordered a chest x-ray. He had also lost 3 ounces and this was the first time ever that he lost weight, so we knew something was wrong. Aside from being a little whiny, he doesn't really act like he feels badly.

From the chest x-ray Dr. M determined that he has some pneumonia and put him on antibiotics. He did not have a fever so she said we caught it very early. We were sent home with strict instructions to call her tonight if anything changes or he spikes a fever. She was uncertain whether he had reherniated, so she sent the films to the radiologist. I don't know when we'll know those results, but I'm planning to call in the morning.

I immediately called Dr. Wonderful at Duke (I know when she sees my number on her cell phone she thinks "not them again!") and she assured me that there is no reason to panic. She put him on a nebulizer, but the medical supply company didn't have it when I called so hopefully they can hook us up with one in the morning. She told us what to watch for and if he starts to get worse, to call them and he might have to be admitted. It's likely that he lost the 3 ounces because he's working so hard to breathe. For now, we're going back on complete lock-down so we can all get some rest and Carter can save up his energy for healing and not visiting/playing.

I also went to Urgent Care tonight with a sore throat, but my strep test came back negative. Darn Pollen!

Right now, he's hanging out in his crib, singing and screeching and rolling around--avoiding going to sleep! We'd love it if you could say an extra prayer for Carter tonight for a quick recovery and for an intact diaphragm/no reherniation. I can't stand the thought of another surgery, but if he has to have another one, we decided that is God's way of telling us it's time for the G-tube.

Thanks for all the notes and messages we've received so far.

Lots of stuff to talk about

It's time for another Carter update and we have so much to report. I'll try to do a quick rundown so there's room for pictures.

• We spent Easter week in Ohio with the Dreyers and while we were up there, we took Carter to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for a consultation with their neonatologist/therapy/nutrition team. They gave us lots of suggestions and thought he looks great! They were very impressed that he has no pulmonary issues. He flirted with all the ladies and made lots of friends. We decided to make the 12 hour drive up there overnight and Carter slept the entire drive. Those NG tube feeds come in handy on long trips :) Nash and Kelly were so sweet to let us crash with them and fed us lots of yummy food--Skyline Chili and ribs from Montgomery Inn. Ella and Will were great entertainment and Carter really enjoyed watching them play. I think he was in awe because he's never really been around little kids before. Luckily, they were out of school for Spring Break, so they didn't expose Carter to those icky munchkin germs. Brad even had the honor of watching "High School Musical 3" with Ella!

• Carter started trying to combat crawl while we were in Ohio while reaching for Ella & Will's Easter eggs!
  
• Carter's FIRST tooth popped through today! I will try to catch a photo, but everytime we try to see it, Carter sticks out his tongue.
  
• He had his FIRST well-baby check at the pediatrician today. It's a small world because his pediatrician told us that she went to medical school in Louisville with the neonatologist we saw in Cincinnati! Carter weighed in at 15 pounds, 6 ounces and 26 1/2 inches long. That's a 1/2 pound gain in a week. He also got his 6 month vaccinations, so he was not a happy baby.
  
• We have been given about 3 months to make progress with his feeds before it's time for the g-tube. The team at Cincinnati say the "window" of feeds is around 9-10 months and if he's not PO feeding by then, it's time for a g-tube. I think the team at Duke agrees, except they don't think we should wait that long.
  
• He's now on 26 kcal/oz formula (normal formula is 20 kcal/oz) and we were able to cut back on the volumes just slightly to 800 mLs/day. The goal is to get to 900 mLs/day but we have to make those adjustments very slowly.
  

And now for many pictures because I just couldn't decide which ones to post...

Prayer Bear "Hope" went on the trip, too! Hope spent every single day in Carter's bed in the NICU so we feel like she's our lucky charm.

Will got out his Doctor kit and checked Carter's heart. Sounds good!
Ella buried Carter in all of her stuffies while he laughed and laughed. Can you find him?

Trying to crawl!Kelly & I went shopping and found these monkey sunglasses

Happy 6 Months Monkey

Today is Carter's half-a-year Birthday! Where did it all go???

He had a big day. It all began with UNC winning the National Title--I mean, what else could you ask for? He went to OT today to see Mrs. Leah and is making good progress. Then, he went to the pediatrician's office to get his last RSV shot for the season. What a fun way to spend your birthday :) Luckily, he won't remember it (until he reads about it in his blog book).

The big news is that he now weighs 6.75 kilos (14 lbs, 14 ounces). That's a 7 ounce gain from last week! We started adding just a little rice cereal (1/2 tsp. per oz.) to the bottles he takes PO at night and those added calories have helped bring on the weight gain.

I'm becoming quite the pro at getting things done around the house while wearing my newest "accessory"= Carter! I was running cold water in the sink today to fill up Lucy's bowl while wearing Carter and he reached right into the stream of water and loved it. I turned the water on later to show Brad and he reached right out for it again. While this may seem trivial, for a kid with sensory issues, this is HUGE!

Double The Fun!

Carter has doubled his birth weight and now weighs 6.55 kilos (14 lbs, 7oz). He is 26 inches long, up 4 inches from birth. He's still barely on the growth chart, but he's ON it and gaining each week--that's all that matters. Great job big boy!

Over the last 48 hours, Carter's really been gagging and vomiting more than usual. For example, he threw up FIVE SIX SEVEN times after his 9am feed. He's also not sleeping well, which is very unlike Carter. He's like his mommy and LOVES sleep. He's been vomiting even at times he NEVER yacks. (Shanda: I'll never say that word again w/o thinking of you--in a good way!) Dr. B made a good call and told us to take him to the pediatrician this morning--he has his first cold! :( The "c" word causes great distress to the parents of CDH kids, but his lungs sounded clear this morning. We'll have to keep a close eye on him and do lots of NG feeds, as he can't breathe well through his nose, which makes it hard to drink from a bottle, setting us in backward motion on the feeding issue. Looks like we'll be putting that suction bulb to lots of use (as a side note, Brad thinks if you are a bad person in this life, you are reincarnated as one of these!).

We want to take this moment to remind everyone that we CAN NOT have visitors. We know you are all anxious to see Carter and want so badly to be able to help us, by bringing food and offering to do things around the house. The very best things you can do for us are continue to keep Carter in your prayers (especially right now, that his lungs stay clear) and not visit or send meals to our home. Even sending things through a third party is risky because it still exposes him to outside germs. We do not want to seem ungrateful, because we truly appreciate your thoughtfulness, but we must do what we can to limit his exposure to germs and viruses.

Although the weather is warm, he's still at great risk for becoming deathly ill. The flu has just now become "widespread" across North Carolina and is expected to peak during the month of April.

Big Boy

Carter weighed in at 12 pounds, 7 ounces (5641 grams) today!! Yay for almost a pound of weight gain in 10 days :)

We were able to do a test-run at the pediatrician's office today. If we ever have a real emergency, we have all faith that they will handle it with ease.

Carter's been very cranky since we made the changes in his feeds on Monday. He's tolerating the changes by not throwing up his milk, but he acts very uncomfortable and screams to let us know it. We had to put the NG tube back in and when Brad checked the aspirate (contents in his tummy) this afternoon, there was a little bit of blood in it (gasp!). It was 4:30 so I ran to call the ped. before the office closed. As soon as I told them what was going on, they said to come in IMMEDIATELY and they met us at the door. No checking in, no waiting, just rushed straight back to a room. Dr. examined him, while he was screaming (I bet that sounded good through the stethoscope), and couldn't really find anything wrong. She called xray and told them not to leave yet and we went over for the gazillionth xray. (I think our health insurance is going to start questioning why so many xrays???) The xray showed perfect placement of the NG tube and no other problems. It was neat to see though, because we haven't seen one in a while and we were able to see that Carter's heart is shifting to where it's supposed to be and we saw two big, beautiful, full-of-air lungs. (his left and right lungs are "normal" and are about the same size)

Anyway, back to the story...Carter's become obsessive about rolling over during the night and sleeping on his tummy. This constant rolling has caused a great deal of irritation in his nose from the NG tube moving all around. The conclusion on the blood in the tummy is that his nose bled and he swallowed the blood. And the fussiness is blamed on the increase in volume--she explained that it's like eating Thanksgiving dinner every 3 hours--your tummy would hurt, too!

They told us who is on-call tonight and to call anytime tonight or tomorrow if anything else arises, but for now the diagnosis is "nose bleed." I told Dr. that the diagnosis should be "paranoid parents." :)

I think Carter and Lucy are in a competition to see who can get the most attention from us in one week, and it's only Tuesday!