Tuesday, November 18, 2008

No news is not good news.


Well the new doc was fine. He couldn't say what it was either and affirmed with our regular doc's opinions/course of action. So he has given the referral. We will see a surgeon from the Riley Children's Hospital. They send someone up to Lafayette now because they are part of the Clarian health system or something and we have a new hospital up here, so we may be able to see the surgeon here in L-town. If not, we'll drive down to Indy. Doc said that yes it could be a fistula but he simply couldn't say and had not seen one that looked like that before, but that it made sense to be a fistula. So I guess pediatricians really just don't deal with this sort of thing. Will be good to see the surgeon. They will call us with an appointment. I don't know when it will be, but today's doc confirmed this didn't seem like a rush or emergency sort of thing. I will let you know when we know more.

Also, we have moved Sam into his own room. Or rather we moved out of what is now his room. I'm trying hard to stick to a nighttime routine and we are trying to skip his 3 am feeding. I call it a 3 am feeding though he doesn't really have the same schedule everyday, but it seems it is OFTEN a 3 am feeding. Anyway, the first two nights we had to offer pacifier instead and he went to sleep without a hitch. Last night he didn't wake to feed. Maybe the doctor was right and that he isn't actually in need of food at that time. So last night he slept 10 pm-5 am without waking. Or if he did wake he got himself back to sleep without any fussing that we noticed. Maybe sleeping through the night isn't some magical thing but something that just happens if you have all of your pieces in place. I was realizing that we were probably waking Sam some of the times and I was just automatically feeding because that's what I thought I was supposed to do. The boy does not seem in need of food even with skipping this feeding so I think we might be on the right track. For the early morning feed, though, I do still bring him to bed because I like my cuddle time with the little guy. OH and those of you with cold-weather babies -- how do you keep them warm enough at night? He's fine in bed with us, but in his crib his hands always seem cold. And you can't use too many blankets. Hmmm...



4 comments:

Iotis said...

We always kept the house a little warmer than usual when the babies were little. For cold-weather sleeping I put them in a onsie, put a sleeper over that, and then put a fleece sleep sack on top of that. I'd also usually cover them with one blanket up to their waist and tuck it in securely at the sides. That seemed to do the trick! A trick the nurses taught us is to feel how warm their back is, rather than rely on how their hands feel. Sometimes their hands (or even your own) will feel chilly when their temp is actually just fine. I hope the docs at the children's hospital can ease your worries and that Sam's lump is a minor issue and easily treated. He's such a cutie -- love all the recent pics! :)

Amy E. said...

I hope the lump is minor and easy to resolve. I second the vote for a fleece sleep sack. They're really warm, don't get kicked off and E always slept better when we used one.

Liz said...

Thanks! I remembered someone gave us a hand-me-down sleep sack so we tried it out last night! I did the Iotis-combo with the onesie, sleeper, and then the sleep sack. Worked well! You were right. Hands were still chilly to the touch, but his back was nice and toasty.

AstroYoga said...

In Germany (where I live) the sleeping sacks are very popular. Mos kids use them for many years. The hands still get cool, but the body is warm. A lot of houses in Germany turn off the heat at night as well, and the babies don't freeze, so I guess it works just fine.

I just started using a book called "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer", and she has a nice chapter on sleep. She came to the same conclusion that you did. If you pay attention to what your kid needs, you may find them sleeping through the night more easily (of course, there are always those wonderful exceptions). We had to move our six week old into her own room after realizing that we had been waking her up throughout the night, which made her cry, and then she woke us up.