Daycare, Raspberries, and Pyloric Stenosis

It's been quite a few weeks in the life of young Master Bubs. We found daycare! And by we, I mean Valerie, who did nearly all of the work. Starting next week, Bobby will be attending an Early Head Start Program. He qualifies based upon his Down Syndrome diagnosis. They have a nurse on staff, a very palatable 3 teachers to 8 infant ratio, and a staff that is already charmed in advance by Bobby. It's a huge relief.

It's a huge relief because the feeding tube is not going anywhere for a while. Since Bobby's surgery we've scarcely been able to work with a bottle because he has had some severe digestive problems. What started as the occasional spit up became vomiting of 2-3 feeds a day. His weight stalled, he was miserable all of the time. The whole thing was terrible.

Last week we took him to the GI doctor. They found that his problem may be something called pyloric stenosis. Essentially, the condition is caused by an infant being unable to relax the muscle that connects the stomach and the first part of the small intestine. Over time, the muscle gets very big from being overworked and food can't pass out of the stomach very well. The solution is, of course, a surgery. But not a horrible one, like open heart surgery. We're doing more testing today, but we may just watch the condition for a month or two.

The good digestion news is that we switched to soy formula last week and things are looking up. Bobby has had several good days and seems to be feeling much better, although his daily fevers are returning. Some days it feels like we're just playing the carnival game 'Whack A Mole'. We whack one ailment into submission and two more pop up to replace it.

In much, much happier news, Bobby's progressing in his development. His neck is getting much stronger and he's able to hold it up for a few seconds at a time. We're working with him on putting his toes to his mouth (ab crunchers) and reaching for toys (working his pecs).

Verbally, he's going crazy. Sunday morning about 3 am I woke up to the sounds of Bobby fopping away in his bassinet. His favorite sentence so far involves a series of coos and ends with a raspberry. It's the sweetest sound ever.

Tomorrow the three of us go to court for Bobby's adoption hearing. I'm very excited because, before court, we have to go to the sheriff's office so Bobby can be served with papers. Five months old and, already, he'll have a record. That kid is 2 cool 4 drool.