…For Now…
So it was the hip splint!! Aleck slept for 6 hours. He probably would have slept longer but Craig made me wake him up. This is an issue I’m always back and forth on, and would love to hear what others think. Do you or don’t you wake a sleeping baby? Before the splint and cast I had him on schedule according to this one baby book which insisted I wake him and have him feeding no later than 7AM every morning, and keeps instructing me to wake him up from his naps to keep him on a regular feeding schedule. That was working really well until we started down this medical road. I mean, if your baby hasn’t really slept in two days do you wake him to feed him or just let him sleep as long as he needs to since he’s obviously so tired? I had woken myself at 3am, 4:15 am, and 5am with the same question, then Craig kicked me out of bed at 5:30am to wake him up. He actually had his eyes open, I changed his very full diaper, and he took his feeding. During which he fell asleep on me, I laid him down, he cried so I picked him up and he burped, put him back down sound asleep. He only stayed like that for 30 minutes before he cried again. This time he pooped when I picked him up, so he’s definitely got stomach issues that we can talk with the GI about next week.
Poor little man was cranky for his entire EI evaluation. They woke him up and he’s been so exhausted, then he needed to feed (the speech pathologist called him “an organized feeder” which means that I’m doing at least something right), then pooped while he fed so I had to change his diaper, it was like a 3 ring circus. The PT was very sweet and was the one that was recommended by my practice at the RIC. She had a great soothing technique but in the end, he cried non stop.
Since he was crying and I was feeding him and soothing him it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they were saying, but the “take away” is this; they are recommending PT right away, they are recommending OT right away. I think the PT focuses mainly on movement and muscle tone, while the OT focuses on things like getting his hands to his face, helping him to self-soothe, and later helping him to feed and hold his bottle. My case worker comes on Monday so I can sign the rest of the paper work and we will begin this process.
I just heard back from the doctor’s and we are going to leave the splint off until Tuesday when we go in for his 4th casting. To me this brings up very mixed feelings. It’s a total relief to have a few days off from “Plasticman”, and actually get to feel his tush. It’s so much easier to sit him upright to burb when the splint isn’t on, and clearly he’s a lot more comfortable. I’m sure he’s just gotten bigger, now a whopping 6 lbs 14 oz (he was 6 lbs 6 oz for his first casting), and it’s no longer fitting him correctly. But will he get used to not having it on for the next number of days? Will I have to go through the re-acclimation process again on Tuesday night? Will that last another 3 days of pure hell like it was before? I guess whatever it is, we’ll have to deal with it, and hopefully his Grandma Suzy will be feeling better (she’s been sick all week) so we can switch off who gets to hold the ticking time baby 😉
Lastly, people have been asking me about making donations for Aleck, for all of his medical expenses and I wanted to let everyone know that donations to CaringBridge are to support this website that gives me the outlet to share with all of you, but they do not go to Aleck. We will be working on setting up a fund for Aleck and all of his medical costs with the money we received from the Bris and any other future donations. So if that’s where you want your money to go, hold onto your pocket book for now, and we’ll get you the details once its all set up.
Thanks for your continued support, emotionally, financially, and physically for those who’ve been able to come over and give me needed relief during difficult spurts. You mean so much to us and we love you all.
oxo