Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Wean baby wean!

Lochlan had his appointment with Dr. Flavin one week ago. He is the respiratory doctor. He decided to start weaning Loch a little more from his puffers. He now has a set schedule. He now gets 2 puffs of Ventolin in the morning and at night and 2 puffs of Flovent in the morning and at night. So different from where we started. When he first came home he was getting 21 puffs combined of 3 different puffers a day. Now it's 8 puffs a day!
Beginning next week he will lose the morning Ventolin and just get it in the evenings along with the Flovent twice a day.

If that fairs well, we will cut back on the Ventolin altogether and he'll just get the Flovent 2 puffs twice a day.

If everything still is going well, Lochlan will be down to one puff of Flovent twice a day. (2 puffs for the entire day!!!!!! woooo-hooooo!)

So exciting! I'll have to get a picture of Lochlan when he is getting his puffers done. It's a sight to see. The aerochamber fits right over this nose and mouth. He is pretty good at taking it now except for when he is tired. Can't say I blame him.

I also found out at the appointment with Dr. Flavin that Lochlan will see him every four months until one year old....so one more appointment til that milestone. And then every six months until he's four years old, then once a year until he's around seven. At that point, they'll run some tests on his lungs. But he did say because he is doing so well, that he doesn't expect there to be any major surprises.

We had to stick around after the appointment to get Lochlan's blood drawn to test his iron levels. Which was a treat in itself. He ended up with a huge bruise. Poor lil thing. I always have to remind myself that he's been through worse. Hopefully he won't have to be on his supplement for much longer. I think he's getting enough with all the cereal with extra iron in it that he's eating and the fortified breastmilk too.

Before leaving us though, Dr. Flavin said, "Bye Lochlan, you're a great boy!"
Warmed my heart.

The biggest struggle I'm having these days is Lochlan's nap times. You could almost say - what nap times? He really only naps about 20-30 mins each time. And he's ready for his naps too. It's not that I'm putting him down when he's not tired. He needs them. So he has about 4 short naps a day. Blah! Soooo ready for them to extend! Usually when it comes time for Abby's nap, he'll be sleeping, I'll get her down and then he'll wake up. Then we'll play and be ready for his next nap, and then Abby will wake up. Good times really. I've put in my request to have him sleep longer but we'll see if he listens to mommy!!! ; )

He's also back to having some issues pooping. Funny thing is that I've actually put him on the potty 3 times now and he's gone immediately. Some very long poops. Amazing really. Rob took a picture the first time because it was just one long string of #2. He said he was going to use it as his profile pic on facebook. Please no! Anyway, it's the only way he can get it all out because it's formed and the diaper restricts it from all coming out. Sorry to talk about his bowel movements but it is something that is forefront in my mind these days.

He stopped liking prunes after about the first or second time I gave it to him so now I have to mix it with his cereal to get him to eat it. So far so good. I've run out of the Lactulose the doctor said to give to him so looks like I'll be getting more of that to have on hand. I'm hoping though that because he's eating more prunes that his system will reboot and I can avoid having to give him any "medicine" to help smooth things along.

In the past few weeks, he's tried Avocado which he was ho hum about and peas. Peas were a bit too textured for him. The blender just doesn't get all the bits pureed.
It's amazing how two kids can be so different already. Abby LOVED her dried fruit puree (that's the prunes and apricots and apple mix) and loved sweet potatoes and butternut squash but Lochlan not so much. Still have to post that video of him eating the prunes. So funny. Rob has it so I'll have to get a copy from his iPhone.

I'm going to go through the Baby's Table book to start making some super yummy sounding recipes and maybe he'll eat a little more. Cause the other stuff just ain't cutting it. Fingers crossed he just wants more taste to his food because he loves his mixed cereal with fruit.

Anyway, Abby is now awake (got up about 10 mins ago) and Lochlan just got up too. This time a 35 min nap! Woo, how exciting! ha ha And...there was a bit of an overlap. Lucky me!

We're at my moms so I'm able to blog without looking around my house thinking I should be cleaning or whatever.

Okay, I'll try to post more pics when I get home. And maybe some video. Lochlan's been loving his jolly jumper lately. So cute. And I got a super cute video of Abby last night saying "Dort-tee (Dorthy) this is how you jump!" (or spin, or whatever) Ten points if you can tell me where that's from!

2 comments:

  1. Go Lochlan! At first I thought you meant he was finished nursing. =) Soooo glad to hear that he's doing so well with his puffers. Could he send some good vibes Timmy's way so we could have him decannulated at the same time Lochlan is coming off the puffers?

    Cannot believe what a little stud he is with the solids! Still struggling here, but pleased that Timmy will actually eat off a spoon now. Let's get some chub on these boys!

    And sooooo feeling your pain when it comes to sleep. Timmy naps like Lochlan - a random half hour here, 20 minutes there... Occasionally I'll get a 3-hour block in the middle of the day and not know what to do with myself. (Answer provided by three other kids.) Callie has taken it upon herself to ruin any considerable stretch of sleep at night. So sweet... Maybe I could give her Abby's number and they could just wake each other up and leave the rest of us asleep. =)

    And my answer is: Elmo's World!!! Yea me!

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  2. 10 points for you Wendy! : )

    The solids are going alright. He does love his cereal and eats it right up - it's the other foods I can't get him interested in. Hoping one day he decides to give it all a go! The squash tonight I'm calling a success. He didn't get this look of horrible dislike and actually opened his mouth for more. Didn't want to push my luck though!

    How often is Timmy nursing or bottle feeding? Lochlan's been really slowing down on the nursing sessions. Sometimes all he does is 5 mins of one breast. I'm trying to convince myself he's just more efficient.

    All over Abby and Callie keeping each other company while we all sleep. I've been working on a transporter...k..in my head...but that'd be nice!!!

    Thanks for your comments. I look forward to them as well as reading your blog regularly!

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