labwork and sono and doc appointments, Oh My!

Its been a busy couple weeks for us. As I mentioned, we have had some issues with Caleb and his weight. It started I guess about 3 weeks ago. He started spitting up after eating, more like projectile vomiting large amounts after most of his feedings. He never acted sick, always had a good appetite, kept having wet and dirty diapers, etc. Nothing seemed too off. I didn't think too much about it, figured he wasn't burping good, and this was something I did as a baby. It gets to be close to 2 weeks I guess, and over a weekend (our furnace was out at the time, but that's another story) Husband mentioned that Caleb had been pretty fussy, not wanting to sleep. Come Tuesday am, he mentions he was making odd noises when he was breathing, like he was sighing after each breath but it only lasted a couple minutes. I went to feed him at daycare after I got off work that morning, and he seemed to be his usual self, he did vomit all over me but seemed fairly happy. When I picked him up that afternoon, he seemed pretty sleepy. He usually gets very excited to see me but he went right back to sleep after I loaded him up in the car seat. My mommy-intuition kicked in and I decided that I would take him to the after hours clinic, just to make sure he didn't have something like RSV. I get there and the first thing they do is weigh him - only 11lbs 8 oz. I immediately start to panic because I swore that was what he weighed at 4 months. The NP saw him, said he had an ear infection, but lungs were good but the real issue became his weight. The next day, we went to Hospital for a pyloric sonogram to rule out pyloric stenosis. Caleb hated it, but it was fine. He also had some blood drawn and a urine sample done. All the labs were fine except his albumin was low. So that bought us a trip to the Children's Hospital in Bigger City for a sweat test to rule out cystic fibrosis. Now even though I knew it was impossible for him to have it since I am not a carrier, I still was a bit anxious about it. It of course came back negative. By now, it's Friday and he had stopped vomiting. We've started solids and try to supplement with a bottle of formula a day. But in true style of my children, he refuses the formula, will take bmilk out of a bottle just fine, and doesn't really like the solids. I would just supplement with bmilk, but I don't really have enough stored. I'm down to six 5 oz bottles in the freezer. I took him back for a weight check on Wednesday and in a week, he was up to 11lb 10 oz. I actually think he gained more because the initial weight of 11-8 was in a diaper, and this one was without. But the fact that he's 6 months and still hasn't doubled his birth weight and is gaining so slowly is concerning. We saw a pediatric GI doc yesterday and she was actually very encouraging. She said a 2oz weight gain in a week was great. She also thinks he may have reflux, which could explain why he hates solids like he does, so we now have zantac for the little guy. She also thinks that this whole thing stemmed from the ear infection/virus he had, and he dropped weight from the vomiting. The low albumin she said wasn't really a good indication for his current nutritional level, so she wanted to have a pre albumin done, along with repeat CMP and urinalysis. She was very pro-breastfeeding and wants me to try to get him to take 6 oz at a feeding (a no go so far) and if I don't have enough bmilk to supplement, she wants us to give a high fat formula (which I still need to pick up from the pharmacy) and try to get about 4 oz of that in him a day. We will have weight checks every week for 4 weeks and we'll follow up with her then. If he doesn't put on much weight, then she'll give us the high calorie version of this formula. But she was fairly confident he'd be fine. I did have my moment on my way to work last night because the diagnoses for him are GERD and Failure to Thrive. I remember learning about failure to thrive in nursing school and the way they presented it, it made it sound like the parents were doing something wrong. That isn't the case, but there's a sense of dread over that diagnosis. Plus it just makes me sad that once again my body is "failing" me and not providing for him like I want to, and should be able to. And even though I know that really isn't the case, all you mommies out there know what I mean - no matter what, there is still that part of all of us as moms that makes us feel guilty. So last night on my way to work, I let myself cry about the whole failure to thrive diagnosis. But, he is a happy boy, meeting his milestones like he should and hopefully we can plump him up.

And as a bonus, here's my cute little bubs: