EKG, Echo, and more eating stuff

Today was looking like a good day. Until the evening.

He was eating ok. Well, ok relative to how he has been eating. It wasn't worse at least. And at dinner, he actually took most of his milk from a soppy cup with a straw. Then after he ate, his heart rate suddenly jumped up to 205. It stayed up at 170-180 for half an hour, and he wasn't super excited or anything. Just long enough for the nurse to call the doctor and for them to schedule an EKG. Then it went back down to the somewhat normal range. So they did an EKG and have an echo scheduled for tomorrow morning. He also has a cardio consult tomorrow. I don't know if that is just the echo, or if there will be more to that.

Also, after he started drinking his bedtime meal, he took about 1 ounce, started coughing, then threw up. A lot. Much more than the 1ounce he had taken. So he must have thrown up some of what he ate earlier, too. He was able to take some more after all that, so at least he won't wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

The dietician is talking with the doctors about his eating. He has been eating so slowly. We keep getting told that it's just what SCID babies do; they just stop eating well. However, I don't like that explanation. I don't want to just deal with him eating poorly. I want to make sure he is eating how much he should be and keeping his weight up. We can tell that he has been getting thinner. Well, more like he has been growing longer, and the weight is just spreading out. He hasn't been losingweight, but he hasn't gained either. He is stuck right around 17 lb (7.6 kg).

I know he is old enough to be eating more solid foods, but the only option we have here is jarred baby food. The dietician and doctors want him taking as much formula as possible first because it has all the nutrients he needs. If he eats baby food, he won't be getting a balanced diet and all the nutrition he needs. So we are spending most of our time trying to get him to drink that. It concerns me a little that we won't be able to get him on solid foods until we are back home again. At which time he will be a year old.

And now I'm a little bummed. I hadn't really done the math before nowhere but it looks like we won't be back at our own home before some time in December. Which means we will very likely be away from home for his first birthday and for Christmas.

To end this blog on a happier note...happy 9 months to Cael! I can't believe he is already 9 months old. As always, I think he is just the sweetest, cutest baby there ever was. The nurses have nicknamed him the gerber baby. They all just think he is so cute and such a good baby. And