Terran got his replogle out today!! And he did a contrast study!! Big moves!!!!

Amazing item #1:  Seeing Terran without a replogle was even better than I expected. The care team removed it before I got in and said he was visibly relieved and went right to sleep. It was important for a while- he would get irritated when the bile would build up and needed a nurse to manually suck it out. But it comes with a cost- the end of the line would scratch his stomach wall and make it bleed. All the brown flecks we’ve seen the past couple days is evidence of that. So happy he doesn’t need it anymore and we’re able to stop doing harm!

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Amazing item #2:  The surgeons decided we didn’t need to wait for poo after all. Instead, we traced the GI tract via a contrast study to prove its functionally. His first feeding ever was a supposedly terrible tasting solution that can be picked up on x-ray images. Yuck. But I got to feed it to him in a bottle, which he took to immediately. His binkie training proved fruitful! If there was any doubt of his feeding intuition, that was stamped out today. After he took 10ml of the solution, they took an x-ray and we saw the stomach light up. We then took more images over the next few hours and watched the progress of the solution. Terran started to cough up a bit when he was laid flat for the imaging, but some sitting up and pats on the back calmed him down. He didn’t throw up, but he did get REALLY tired. It was scary because I didn’t want him to “fail” the test. Then I remembered… babies get gassy and burping is normal! Realizing there are some totally normal baby things that we haven’t dealt with yet because of his unique situation… so much more to look forward to haha! Anyway, Terran passed his contrast study as far as we can tell. The solution traveled the whole GI tract and there were no leaks or blockages. We’re staying in the sleep rooms tonight and we’ll meet with the surgeon in the morning. Word on the street is Terran gets to start his feeding program if the surgeon gives the go ahead!! That’s the beginning of the end. It’s a minimum of a 15-day program and then there’s Seattle Children’s hospital for the home IV care afterwards, but it’s turning a corner toward discharge and home life. Trying not to get too excited because there are still things that could go wrong but it’s hard when you have such a ROCKSTAR baby!!

Warm & fuzzies of the day:

1. Our nurse today loved the blackberry brownie cupcakes I brought in for Terran’s 2-week birthday. I eventually admitted that I had to bake those this morning because I ruined last night’s batch. Who messes up brownies?! Yeah, embarrassing. I’m not a baker. But Terran is worth celebrating so I try. 

2. Multiple x-ray techs stopped on their way out to tell me that Terran is “legitimately the cutest baby I’ve seen.” It’s clearly an objective statement now. The Official Terran Fan Club is going strong!