cole...

Cole is home from the hospital. At his doctor's appointment on Monday he weighed 8lbs. and 7oz. which is entirely too small for an almost three month old. She diagnosed him failure to thrive and sent us over to Mercy. I was a little skeptical about having my baby boy admitted there, but I wanted his doctor to be able to monitor him so I allowed it. Our nurse (Connie) was fantastic! It turned out that she goes to Bethel Nazarene and knows Heidi's family and the Pridgen family. Anyhow, she took really good care of us. They got Cole hooked up to an IV and started pumping fluids into him. They also hooked him up to a machine that monitored his pulse and O2 sats. It was sad seeing him all hooked up to machines. He kept trying to grab his IV tube and hold onto it, and every time he bent his leg up it set off the alarm that he had lost his pulse. We deduced that for some reason that he wasn't gaining weight by breast feeding, so we put him on formula. After talking to the doctor, I decided that all breast feeding would really do for him right now would be to delay weight gain. He needs to be on formula only so that he is able to get the nutrition he needs with every meal. She told my I could continue nursing if I wanted, but I decided to go to bottles. (I really don't like nursing that much anyway... so I'd rather just go to bottles and formula and get him gaining weight!) By yesterday morning he weighed in at 9lbs. 6oz. This was really great because they really only expected him to gain a few ounces and not almost a whole pound! This morning he had gained a couple more ounces and was at 9lbs. 8oz. When the doctor saw him this morning she was super impressed and told us we could go home a day early. We have a follow up appointment on Monday, and she wants him to get up to 11lbs within the next few weeks. Everything is looking pretty good! Thanks to everyone for all of the prayers.