Noah's First Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Day, Noah was spoilt, as predicted, but nothing ridiculous, just nice. We had Nana and Poppy Bill here as well as my brother Colin and his Wife Annie and my two nephews, Matthew and Jeremy. It was a nice day, rainy, so it wasn't hot which is the usual on Christmas Day. Noah was spoiled from Nana as my mum stayed for a few days over Christmas, which I think she enjoyed alot as well as giving us a hand with him.

Noah has been put onto formula now as we started to run low on breast milk in the freezer and so we slowly put him onto the bottle.  He is having a little reflux and bowel problems, we hope it is just him adjusting to the formula. He has gone back to having trouble pooing and he has vomited a few times and belly aches for a long time after a feed. We think he has a little bit of reflux. Sometimes we think he has silent relux as well, because we see him sort of dry heave, then screw up his little fast like he has tasted something really bad, then he cries like he is some pain.

We gave him some brown sugar and water for his pooing pains and that did the trick again! We are trying to feed him as upright as possible and then keep him as upright as possible for half and hour after his feed and letting him drink want he wants often instead of trying to make him have it. He put on 130 grams in the last week so now he is 5 pounds 10 ounces, or 2550 grams!!

We dont seem to be free from some minor ailment of a sort tho. Maybe this is just what all babies go through. He went from constipation to diarrohea and cramping to constipation, vomiting, reflux. To top it all off he had to go on antibiotics because he was exposed to Whopping Cough at the Eye Clinic the other day. He was not in contact with it, but just to be on the safe side they put all the babies on them just in case. He has approx. 40% protection with his first vaccinations and we managed to give him 4 days of antibiotics and that was enough. It had been 13 days since his exposure and he had no symptoms and his side effects were so bad with the upset tummy and diarrohea that we took him off it. He's been alot better for it.

Anyway, we seem to be doing okay with the upright thing at the moment, we'll just have to see what happens. Other than that he has been really really cute in his bouncer. We proped him up a bit so he could just reach the toys, and he has been trying to swipe at them and does it over and over and looks pleased with himself! He is very alert and looking around alot and looking at us and tracking us with his eyes. Which I meant to say have been given a good report from the opthalmologist. His ROP is nearly resolved in one eye and the other eye is Stage 1 Zone 3 so it is resolving as well, which was the best Christmas present ever for all of us!!

Since he's been home...

Well the lovely Noah has been a good boy really. He had his first paediatrician appointment after 10 days home and unfortunately he had only gained 40 grams. The doc wanted kim to stop breastfeeding and put him on formula, mainly so we could measure exactly what he was drinking and make sure he was getting enough. Kim reminded him that we had a deep freezer full of expressed breast milk at home, so he said that was ideal. Bottle feed him the breast milk. After 3 days of doing this he gained 100 grams!

The doctor also found that Noah had an Inguinal Hernia and sent us straight away to a paediatric surgeon. That was on a Friday and on the Monday he was in theatre for 30 mins having an operation. But he came through that without any hiccups and two little cuts on his lower belly about a cm each. He only had a hernia on one side but the surgeon decided to do both sides just in case with all his straining to poo he popped the other side as well.

He really picked up after the operation with his feeding as well so he is now 2430 grams!! Finally broke the 5 pound barrier!!! He is looking so adorable and is just a delight to have around. He is so cute, everyone says so!! At the moment he is having a little trouble bringing up his wind, so we rang the doctor and he is on colic drops every second feed at the moment, started those last night.