April 30, 2013:

I'm currently sitting down in the living room holding our lil sleeping man. He keeps grunting and squirming, but is sleeping none the less. :) Yesterday was day 3 of no poop since Friday. We had our Pediatrician appt yesterday morning to check weight and discuss his pooping regime. He's just over 6 lb now!! Glad to know he's gaining weight and growing. On the constipation front, our doc mentioned using dark Karo syrup. She got in touch w/ our nutritionist from the NICU and called me last evening to add 1.5 tsp of the dark Karo syrup to each of his bottles. I just gave him his 3rd dose here at noon and still no poop. :( I'm supposed to add it to every bottle until he goes. It's action is to pull water from the body into the intestines and help to soften the poop to then be pushed out. He must be really backed up. :( Needless to say last night was a rough one since he gets more fussy and doesn't want to take his bottles and spits up when he's constipated. It's amazing how we constantly seem to be doing a load of laundry now. :) Oh mercy...

The last of our company left yesterday afternoon, which was sad. :( It's always nice to have the extra help. Now we must get the house cleaned up and back in order. Thankfully I have Robert here this week to help me take care of RJ so I can get things done.

Today has been our lazy day. Between RJ and myself, we have appointments every day this week except today. Whew.... It was super tricky trying to get RJ, myself, and everyone out the door yesterday morning to be at the clinic by 8:15am for my 2nd opinion appt w/ the vascular surgeron. He pretty much confirmed what we've been hearing from the other docs we've talked to. If at my repeat CTA the pseudoaneruysm is bigger, treatment is necessary. Since the pseudoaneurysm is small, he was suggesting that a coil might not work and could potentially when deployed go through the pseudoaneurysm and into the brain. So, a closed stent seems to be the best option. A mesh stent could potentially allow blood flow through the holes into the pseudoaneurysm which could then cause it to get bigger and rupture. Surgical repair is not best b/c the pseudoaneurysm is so high up and near the base of my brain. They would have to dissect through a lot of muscles and move my jaw to even get to the area. I'm hoping that on repeat imaging it's smaller and we can just monitor it w/ repeat imaging. The vascular surgeron also ordered a duplex study to be done at the same time as the CTA for comparison. If the studies look comparable, then for the future I could just get the duplex, which is a type of ultrasound, and not have to get exposed to repated radiation and contrast. I asked for the studies to be done during the first week of June while my sister is here to help take care of RJ. Dealing w/ my health is sure more tricky now that we have a lil boy around. :)

We still wouldn't trade our lil miracle baby for anything. He's so precious. We can't wait to show him off to everyone!! Thanks again for your continued prayers, support, and love. We woudn't be all snuggled up today on the couch without them. :)