8.22.10 - Hiccups, status and updates

In 8 days, Liam will officially be 11 months old....That's right....one more month until he turns 1!  I remember one year ago, my August was full of baby showers, getting the nursery ready, no sleep and great anticipation awaiting Liam's arrival, thinking I had two more months of pregnancy to go before I would see his sweet face.  Liam came3 weeks and 1 day early, and on my dad's birthday no less =)  And then our lives changed forever...and that I will leave for another post!

This next paragraph may get a little graphic, so if you are eating or are about to eat, you may want to skip ahead =)
We had a few hiccups this weekend.  Let me start by re-sharing the thought that I have always suspected Liam does not tolerate milk normally.  So, the events of this weekend confirmed my suspicion, however yielded an unfortunate result.  From the time he spent in the hospital with the virus and then the past surgery in June, milk caused many problems and we had to switch him to a soy based formula.  The soy was hard on his system, so for the past 8 weeks or so, I have been giving him Alimentum formula (hypoallergenic) and he has been doing GREAT.  No spitting up or vomiting at ALL for at least the past 6 weeks.   My plan was to keep him on this expensive formula until I felt like Liam was completely recovered from the surgery and that his system was running at 100% and then slowly switch him back to the milk-based Goodstart he was on before (but, looking back, I realized he spit-up and occasionally vomited on this even prior to surgery).  The past week I have been mixing 1/4 GS to 3/4 Alimentum....Liam spit up a couple times, but I didn't really think much about it, so for the most part he was doing fine.  Well, Saturday rolled around, so I upped the GS to 1/2.  Poor little Liam did not tolerate it well, as it came out both ends, quickly, for most of the day.  We ended the day on a feeding of Pedialyte.   No fever or acting unusual, so I knew it must have been the milk....Today I started him back on straight Alimentum and no problems so to speak.  His D went away and he has not V'd either. (I think I would rather use abbreviations for those two thing =)).  So, back to square one.  I am not sure to what degree Liam has an intolerance.  I am thinking it's not a total intolerance, but as someone suggested on one of my support boards, he may just not be able to digest the milk protein very easily.  I have plans to call the nutritionist tomorrow to talk to her more about my theory and see what other options are for formula feeding now that turning 1 is right around the corner. 

We also had to change out Liam's button....on our own...on Saturday.  The morning Prevacid clogged his tube.  Thankfully, Dustin saved us a trip to the ER and thought to swap it out with the old one (now our spare) while he unclogged the new one Liam just got put in on Thursday.  It worked very well, and I amazed myself at how painlessly the swapping out was for all parties involved.   Thank God for my husband and the way he thinks.  My brain just goes into panic mode sometimes and all reasonable solutions to problems just go flying out the window.  See, God knows what He is doing...He set me up to marry my voice of reason so I would always have it around =)  Thank you honey! Love you!

Despite our hiccups, we did try to go about a normal weekend.  We went to my parents house Saturday afternoon and had dinner with GiGi before she leaves to go back home - It was so great having her here to love on and for Liam to get to know his great grandma and spend time with her. We will miss you GiGi!!!

Today, we actually went out, to a restaurant, with Liam, for lunch.  We went with Mike and Amber and Lauren and Grace.  Liam did surprisingly well, sitting in the big boy high chair for the first time.  I have found that outings are getting easier....or at least I am being more prepared for them!

Feeding and drinking are going ok.  The sippy cup is going really well, as Liam has been sipping about 1-2 oz. of water a day .  We have been offering it to him freely during the day and letting him take small sips as often as he wants.  Yesterday, he took in about 2 oz. which I thought was great.  He still will cough if he gets too much at once, but overall is doing good with it.  Solid food feeding is going ok, he is still only able to tolerate Stage 2 foods, as anything thicker or chunkier in texture makes him gag and choke.  He also has not been wanting to eat much lately.  He is actually eating better at daycare than he is at home.  We did have his weight checked when he had his button changed out and it seems he has gained 6 oz in about 20 days, which I guess is good.  So it puts Liam right over 20 lbs.  At least it is a gain. 



We don't go back to the cardiologist for another two months.  It feels very strange to not be going this week.  We have gone to see Dr. Verma at least once a month for all of Liam's life so far.  But I am glad he didn't think we needed to go that often!

And last but not least, a TEAM LIAM update!  We have plans to roll out a TEAM LIAM website in the next few weeks and I am really excited about it!  It will host a number of different things, such as training plans, calendar of events, fundraising updates and a lot more!  I am also hoping to get it up so that our corporate sponsor's can print off forms they need in order to donate to our cause and be recognized on our t-shirts and jerseys. 

I will also be mailing out letters to friends and family explaining a little more in detail what we our purpose is with TEAM LIAM, and for those that do not have access to our blog.  If you know of anyone who you think would like to receive a letter, please email me their address and I will send one out to them!  Corporate letters will be going out soon after that, and I am making plans to visit some local businesses we frequent in the area to try and gain their support as well!  This will be in conjunction with a blog idea I have for September, so stay tuned!