The latest baby news...

Kate is at Vandy.  MD called me Christmas Eve morning and told me she wanted to t/f her to Vandy due to her belly issues.  The MD was convinced that Kate had a "mechanical" problem (bowel obstruction) causing her belly distension and abnormally high amounts of air in her belly--the confusing part is that Kate still eats great and has bowel movements--which she typically would not do if there was an obstruction.  The "fix" for this type of problem is surgery, which they do not do on newborns at Baptist, so...we went to Vandy.  I was really upset bc 30 min earlier-the nurse had called and said she was probably coming home that day.  Anyways, once she got to Vandy, they did a barium contrast study to look at her large intestines to see if they could find some obstruction or narrowing anywhere.  At this point, I was really hoping they would find something very minor that would be an easy fix bc I was tired of the mystery of her large belly.  They found NOTHING abnormal and said they did not see anything that would be causing her problems and require surgery.  I was glad she does not have to undergo surgery, but so frustrated no one seemed to know what was going on.  Yesterday morning, they started Kate on Pregestimil--a special formula for babies with allergies to breast milk-- to see if this would help.  To me, this totally makes sense bc my neices both have this "rare" allergy to breastmilk.  Again, I was kind of frustrated bc I have mentioned this to at least 3 doctors over the past 2 weeks who all said that her belly issues were not caused by my milk.  As of today, she is only allowed to take a very little amount of formula to make sure this does not aggravate her belly and cause her to begin building up air again, but so far so good.  I hate that this poor baby has had to go through so many tests and sticks for blood work over something that could be so simple as intolerance/allergy to breastmilk.
Brooks is still at Baptist and continues to do great.  As of last night, he weighed 3lbs 11.8oz.  He is growing so quickly now and may actually beat Kate home!  If all continues to go well with him, I expect him home within the next 2 weeks.  It is amazing to me how well he has done over the past few weeks.
Braden is doing good at home.  We go back to MD on Tuesday for 1 mo check up--even though he is actually 5 weeks old.  I am anxious to see how much wt he has gained.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  Although mine was NOTHING like I expected, we are so blessed.  Walking around Vandy's Children Hospital, seeing very sick young kids, really puts things in perspective!
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