A busy week

It's been a busy ole week. We stayed at the hospital for two nights on Wednesday and Thursday to get Thomas used to breastfeeding on demand. He stayed in the nursery and mummy had to get up at all times of the day and night to go and feed him. The nurses would come and knock on the door when he was waking whilst daddy snored on oblivious to it all - he did have to go to work on one day. The two days went very well and Thomas seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly waking roughly every four hours.

The results of Thomas' PH study were conclusive in that it is definitely reflux. The test showed that he was refluxing 18.4% of the time which is rated as moderate to severe. At one point, he was refluxing acid into his oesophegus and throat for 30 minutes continuously!!

As a result of this test, the doctors have changed one of his drugs to a much stronger type normally taken by adults but obviously in a much smaller dose!! This drug is designed to reduce the level of acid production in his stomach and he is likely to need it until he is weaned onto solids in 4-6 months time.

Thomas also had his eyes and hearing tested this week. An earlier eye test had shown a slight problem in his right eye but this has subsequently corrected itself. His hearing test showed no problems too.

Again, these are all little steps towards going home. Today we were told that pending another overnight study of his desaturations, to see if the new drug is helping, and us staying in for another couple of nights, Thomas might be allowed home by the weekend or early the following week. It will be 10 weeks since Thomas was born this week so I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is trying to contain our excitement. Until he is physically in the car with us though, I don't think we'll truly believe it. We will be staying in on Thursday and Friday night and Thomas will be in the bedroom with us, this time his daddy will be getting up to help though!!

Here's a picture of Thomas looking very cute having his hearing tested wearing the cardigan that his Grandma Brenda knitted...