Most babies cry to communicate. Brinlee has developed her own communication system of giving one or two angry shrieks to let you know she does not approve of what you have just done or are not doing fast enough.
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/Kimball debuted his own new system of displaying disapproval yesterday. Whenever the kids are having trouble filling their diapers or passing gas and it’s causing them distress, I’ve learned that the fastest way to help them is to start to change their diaper. The legs in the air combined with the breeze of freedom and the cold wipe on their bottom (which gives them somewhere to focus) is usually a guaranteed hit. Sometimes they appreciate our services and sometimes they don’t. Yesterday Kimball was not feeling much gratitude for my generosity, even though my plan was working and he was getting relief. As I held his legs up I felt something pleasantly warm on my hand. I realized he was peeing, so I dropped a cold wipe on him to absorb the rest. That was not appreciated, apparently. Most adults can’t start peeing and then stop and hold the rest, but apparently our very talented son can. I removed the wipe when he seemed to have finished. At that point, whenever I did something he didn’t like, such as apply a cold wipe to his poopy bottom, he squirted me with the still-loaded cannon. Yes, he had reserved some ammunition and was firing at will. I kept thinking surely there was nothing left for him to shoot me with, but I was wrong. 4 times. Maybe he needs a peepee teepee for his sprinkling weewee.
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/http://www.amazon.com/Peepee-Teepee-Sprinkling-WeeWee-Airplanes/dp/B000EBQ8DI/sr=8-1/qid=1165590878/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6418412-6981439?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products
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/Sawyer had 2 more episodes yesterday. One was about 45 minutes after he ate and one was while he was eating. So the clock starts over. 5 more days. They did a sleep study last night where they hook up special monitors to evaluate how often he stops breathing. They haven’t evaluated the results yet. He is on Prilosec and should see maximum relief after 4 days, so Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully that will help him. He’s also not eating very well for the nurses. Since they don’t specialize in infants like they do in the NICU, they don’t necessarily know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to feeding a difficult infant. He is going to have to be eating better before he can come home. We are really grateful that he is doing so well. There are some very sick children in that hospital, and compared to what they are going through, we have it really easy. We know that Sawyer will outgrow this, and that they can find a way to help him in the meantime. It’s just a matter of how long it takes to do that so he can come home.
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/Finally, I have a rant. Two nights ago I took 360 ccs of breastmilk to the hospital for Sawyer’s feedings. That’s enough for 60 ccs per feeding. When I called yesterday to find out what his new feeding orders were so I could bring what he needed, I was told he needed 270 a day and that his breastmilk was all gone. How could it be gone when it hadn’t even been 24 hours? Basically, her answer was she didn’t have a 1/3 teaspoon measurement to make up individual bottles, so she was mixing big bottles and offering him the whole thing. Whatever he didn’t take (which was most of it) had to be thrown out an hour after it touched his lips. I can understand if she didn’t have an appropriate measuring utensil (I’m taking one to her today), but she could have mixed the batches and then divided it into the bottles for the day, which is what we do here at home. I was so astounded I didn’t know what to say. I told her that I barely make enough milk for the 3 of them. She said, “Oh, so you want me to be more conservative with the milk?” Yes, that’s what I want. I’m still just shocked beyond belief. I struggle to give them all breast milk and she was pouring it down the drain. I wanted to cry. Or shake her. I’m just glad we had this conversation over the phone.
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/One last thing. The breast pump they have at the hospital is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. It literally looks like a meat grinder. It’s even the same steel gray color. You can see all the inner workings moving and I did NOT want to hook that up to my breasts. But I did, and I am intact, fortunately. I just try to look away while I’m pumping.