The event of the day was taking Brendan to a clinic for a barium swallow study. As they go forward with his feeding, they wanted to be sure that he was capable of starting to bottle feed without issues like aspirating milk. It has been so long without eating by mouth that they worried he would not be able to do it right.
He fooled them all. He took the bottle of the barium fluid and drank it like a pro. No problems with coordination, no problems with swallowing, no aversion to the bottle. I got to watch the xray image and see the fluid go right down his throat, it was pretty cool. I wish I had a video.
When we see the GI doctor, we will start a plan to work him toward taking the bottle and getting less through the tube.

Trevor got to spend time with his dad again while Brendan and I went for the appointment.

Getting up this morning – Trevor just had a bottle and Brendan was waking up from his last stretch of sleep.

Trevor resting on the couch next to me

Brendan really likes to be bundled tight, until he gets too hot. Puppy is there to hold the binky in.

Brendan in the waiting room at the doctor’s office

He hasn’t gone mad, he is just foamy from drinking that yucky liquid for his test

Any time they are awake, alert and happy at the same time, we put them together. They are funny with each other!

Remember this onesie on Trevor?

It is a totally different baby now that has almost outgrown it.

Today has been a bit of a blur. Brendan has been fighting a bit of congestion. He had a visit from the home nurse today who said that his lungs sound perfectly clear. It is most certainly irritation from the oxygen. His naps are interrupted by little coughs and his inability to clear his throat of built up goo. We tried to do some saline drops and aspiration of his nose and it helped for a short time, but made him really angry in the process.

Trevor has had very bad gas and hasn’t been able to sleep much at all today. He’s needed lots of handling and is balanced on my shoulder now as I am typing. Poor little guy has cried more today than he has all week up to this point. I hope it passes soon.

On top of baby care, it was paperwork chaos day. If there is any opportunity for the billing departments and insurance companies to mess things up, they will and we have to play phone tag for weeks to get things straight. In the process of tracking down two problems today, I discovered that the hospital billed Brendan’s surgery in Trevor’s name. Funny thing is, they paid the claims. I am not sure what will be involved to get that straightened out. All I can say is that after seeing the sizable numbers on the list of claims, I am grateful to have good medical coverage. They just really make you work for it.

On to good news, the nurse weighed Brendan today at 8lbs 6oz. She was impressed by his gain and thought overall he was doing really well. She said all the babies she is seeing are dealing with the dry air and rattling noses and that we are doing everything we can with the humidifier and the saline.

Brendan does better in jammies with the foldover mitts

Dad tries his best to help Trevor feel better

Poor little Trevor is uncomfortable

My erratic sleeping is catching up with me I think. All I have been able to do today between tasks is to take naps! Bill continues to scurry about and get stuff done in the house, organizing in the garage today.
Max and Tammy came by for a visit and brought us an awesome dinner to last several nights – so much appreciated! Thank you!

Brendan had a super good night. After updating the blog in the evening, he was quiet awake and happy and we were able to spend some time talking to him without all of the “shhhhhhh, it’s okay”. He slept very well overnight too. He had a rough morning again, just being generally cranky, he even fussed during his bath which is unusual too. I have not been able to pinpoint what bothers him, but I suspect it is the cannula. He has lots of sneeze misfires from tickles in his nose.

Trevor was awake a lot today too. He is sleeping less and less during the day but he was a good boy overnight.

Trevor had to upgrade to the big boy side of the sink for his bath today! Brendan still got a bath in the small side, but on his next one, I think he will upgrade too.

Trevor gets a bit insistant when the bottles don’t warm up quickly enough

Super appropriate onesie today

Brendan took a nice super long nap in the bouncy chair this afternoon.