Monday, November 10, 2008

Bad blood, a stiff neck, and VH1

*Noah is 3 weeks, 5 days old.*

Just like mommy, Noah's going to be a pro at doctors, specialists, and bloodwork before long! Poor guy...

On Thursday, we had a consultation with the hematologist at Children's Memorial. We discussed Noah's and my medical history at length, and then Noah needed to give some blood. Those poor little heels were just starting to get better! The doctor originally wanted to see us back in 6 months for follow up blood work on both Noah and me and to possibly make a diagnosis of Hereditary Spherocytosis (HS). However, the doctor called the next day and said that Noah is anemic (hemoglobin of 8 point something - 12 is normal), and they want him to get blood work every week for a few weeks and go back to Children's in December for a follow up. Anemia is one of the main symptoms of HS and is something I've lived with my entire life. We're scheduled to see the pediatrician on Wednesday for the blood work.

Noah also had a physical therapy evaluation on Friday for his torticollis. We're doing the evals through Early Intervention. Conflict of interest? Not really - this way I can pick my therapists (call in some favors, if you will) and be on top of what's going on, plus I don't have to take Noah to a clinic full of potentially sick kids at 4 weeks old... The PT said she's going to recommend she see him monthly to check in and make sure he's getting better and not worse. She gave me a lot of tips on positioning and stretching exercises. I'm not too worried about Noah's neck at this point, but it's definitely going to be a matter of breaking bad habits that both he and we have gotten comfortable with in terms of positioning and whatnot.

Noah definitely loves to eat, sleep, and poop. Perfect storm of baby, if you ask me! He's eating about 4oz of pumped breastmilk every 3 hours or so. I try to set my alarm to wake every 3 to 3.5 hours at night, and I've often been sleeping through it (shame on me), but Noah doesn't seem to mind. He'll wake me up when he's ready to eat, and usually will sleep for 4-5 hour stretches. The 3:00am feeding is the hardest for sure, BUT there is one perk. I usually change him, feed him, get him back to sleep, and then go to the basement to pump, which used to suck... until I discovered that VH1 plays music videos in the middle of the night!!! SCORE!!! It totally makes the time fly right by, and last night, part of me almost wanted to keep watching!

1 comment:

The KC Werners said...

Mindy - Also try reading, iVillage and catching up on email during those 3am pumping sessions.