So! Finally! An update on Simon! Sorry for the delay! As you can imagine, life has been upside-down for the last few weeks! This is not “blog-worthy” writing...in fact, I haven’t even really proofread this! Sorry! I just wanted to post something out there to catch everyone up to the same place!

Ahhh….so….We are finally at a place where I feel like I can say, "We are doing okay!"

As most of you know, our precious little bundle decided to stop breathing on us two days after we brought him home from the hospital. I had just nursed him, checked his diaper, swaddled him…and when I held him up for a cuddle, his face was terrifyingly pale and his lips were blue. I started trying everything I could to rouse him, but it was like he was just…gone. I yelled for Daniel and we both started working on him. His color did come back, but is breathing was very irregular and “gaspy” and weird when it was present at all. We rushed him to the Vanderbilt emergency room where he was just swamped by truly amazing doctors who tested everything that could be tested, I think. The trauma of the situation was VERY overwhelming as you can imagine.

After a while emergency room attending physician came out to tell us that he still wasn’t breathing on his own, and that they were going to have to intubate him. There are seriously no words to express how hysterical I felt. After they got him stabilized, we were allowed to go back in and see him and touch him and talk to him.

Shortly they moved him up to the PCCU where we stayed for four days. After two days, the breathing tube was removed and he was breathing great on his own, but no answers as to what had caused this! He was well enough to be moved to a regular room, but there were none available, so we had to wait out most of our stay in the PCCU. On the fourth day, there was talk of us going home. However, a new attending pediatrician came on and said that she wanted to test him for reflux and keep him one more day. The test was done, and instantly, there was our answer! I wasn’t there when the test was performed, but Daniel said that once he got his belly full of contrast, you could just watch it on the screen coming right back up his esophagus.

So! Reflux! We had a likely answer! Though still not able to say with 100% certainty that this is what had caused him to stop breathing, the doctors were confident that this was at least the best answer they could offer us. It is very possible that he aspirated after I nursed him when I laid him down flat to change and swaddle him.

We were sent home with some baby Pepcid and instructions to keep him elevated for 30 minutes after feeding, and elevated while sleeping. Reflux sounded so much better to me than some wild infection or meningitis, so I was as thrilled as I could possibly be! So we came home and tried our best not to stare at him every second of the day and night counting breaths.

Then came the next round of challenges! Simon wasn't gaining weight after he came home from the hospital, and he had everyone worried. So after many trips to the doctor and lactation consultant's, we got a plan going to put some meat on this kid! I didn't know how easy we had it with 2 1/2 to 3 hour feedings! That sounds like such luxury to me now!

This is what I'm doing now: I nurse every 2 to 2 1/2 hours during the day. After I nurse, we supplement with either pumped breast milk or formula. Then I pump for 10 to 15 minutes. Then I go and sterilize everything and get set up for the next round, and by that time, I usually have about 15 to 30 minutes to rest…nap…go to the bathroom…eat…and write updates to our friends about Simon! It really is completely exhausting. BUT...it's working!! We went in for a weight check on Friday, and he had finally regained his birth weight with 2 ounces to spare! Praise God!! I'm not sure the doctors are super pleased with our progress just yet...but I thought I would never see his weight come up, so this feels like such a victory to me!

I think the main issue with his weight was the stress of the hospital stay. I had no idea how quickly a milk supply could shut down in an intensely stressful situation, but it makes sense. There I was, four days post-partum, standing over my sweet baby who was taped down and hooked up to all manner of tubes and junk...it was just too much. So in the hospital I saw my milk supply just plummet. The other issue could be MY health. The lactation consultant ordered a recheck of my thyroid. I was fine during pregnancy when they checked at 20ish weeks, but she said anything could have happened between then and now, and it's possible that I do have some hypothyroidism, especially since I had such a major weight gain. This is another reason for a milk supply to dwindle.

So there is the update! Our life revolves around feeding this little guy and trying to find a spare minute to sleep!

In the next updates, I vow to tell you all about the awesome works of God during this crazy time. We have NEVER experienced His power as richly as we have during this trial. Much more on that later…I just wanted to get everyone on the same page with a few details!