Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Each day I am improving a little more - still have a little bit of a cough and a constantly runny nose - but still very manageable.

This afternoon, Mommy, Lucille and I headed to Roseville to see my GI, Dr Davies. She was running a little behind so we had a good 1/2 hour in the waiting room. I made good use of my time by waving at everyone coming and going and blowing kisses to the office staff. One woman was sitting close by with her bottle of water. First I signed "wash hands" to her but she didn't seem to know what I was saying. Then I signed "water please". Mommy explained to her that I was wanting a drink of water because I saw her bottle and the woman thought it was very cute. If Mommy had let me work on her a little longer I am sure she would have shared with me - cold or not. There was also a baby a little younger then me that I kept signing "signing" to but she didn't understand me either. Mommy interprets for me though so people know what I am trying to say.

I weighed in today - naked - at 17 lbs. 14 ozs. Dr Davies thought I looked great and I am gaining weight at a pretty good rate so next time around, we may actually have to reduce my calories from 30 kcal to 27 kcal. Because I have surgery next week though, for now we are leaving it the same. After I stabilize from my surgery, Dr Davies has given my parents the go ahead to start trying to get rid of my night feedings. They are going to have me go from 4 bolus feeds a day to 5 and then increase each feeding slowly until all of my feeds are during the day. Once that is working well the next step will be to have me take as much milk by mouth as I tolerate and then give the remaining via the g tube. Hopefully, over time, I can take all my milk by mouth but it will probably take some time to get there.

Peyton Nicole Smith