Update

Brody ran into a small bump in the road last week when it came time to stop the drugs. He was having withdrawal problems and none of us slept much at all. His appetite was non-existant and he was incredibly anxious and irritable. We are getting through it, though. We put him back on the drugs for three days and now we are trying it again without the drugs. He still isn't sleeping more than two hours at a time around the clock. He has been taking one morning nap and one afternoon, for about an hour each and then falling asleep around 7 or 8:00. He will sleep for an hour or two and wake up crying again. He doesn't want to sleep in his crib. He wants to be in our arms. This is much better than last week, though, when he would scream when we tried to put him down at all (even when awake). Every day is getting a little better, so we hope that he will be sleeping through the night again soon. We saw his Pulmonologist yesterday. Good news; he can be without oxygen during the day as long as we spot check his saturations with the oximeter. He is still on the oxygen at night. The doctor said something interesting yesterday about Brody's inability to oxygenate his blood when he was sick. He said that when parts of the lung are not working, the human body knows not to route blood to those parts because it knows it will not oxygenate. He has seen it before with preemies that are so early that this doesn't function the way it is supposed to. They do not know why, but it is speculated that it has something to do with the way the body compensates to make the lungs work before they are supposed to. Brody is less than the 5th percentile for weight and height, so they told us to give him calories and try to help him gain weight again. We picked up some Pediasure shakes that have vitamins and protein and we hope that will help. He is slowly getting his appetite back. He likes eggs and toast for breakfast, but only wants junk food the rest of the time! We are trying to get him to eat good meals but he isn't him self right now. Well, he just woke up again so I need to go!