4 Weeks

Tyce is in a preemie outfit this time....which actually makes him look a lot bigger than his 2 week picture.  He is a little bigger though.  He is 6 lbs. 2 oz today!

Unfortunately, he doesn't weigh enough!  We went in for our weight check at Dr. Browns, and then Dr. Brown sent us to see Dr. Labrum at the Cache Valley Hospital.  He wants to admit Tyce on Wednesday and get a feeding tube in him to get his weight up.  He has now been labeled a Failure to Thrive baby.  He has lost all his baby fat and the Dr's are worried he is going to start shutting down.  He is all skin and bones.  He is so wrinkly because he now has so much extra skin where some chub used to be.  I feel so bad changing his diaper because when I wipe him and I am just wiping skin on bone....and I can see his little tailbone sticking out.  :-(

The forifier is working though, even though he is really struggling with it!  He throws it up and it is not just a little spit up!  It is projectile and it comes out his nose!  It is SO sad!  BUT, the Dr. said it is working even if he is throwing a lot of it up....he is still getting more calories in and gaining weight.  He did give us some Enfamil (He was on Similac NeoSure) and told us to try that until we went in on Wed.  He said his own kids did better on Enfamil.....so, hopefully this one is easier on his tummy!  Poor guy!

We also learned that we are only suppose to feed him for 20 minutes.  It didn't matter how much he ate....20 minutes and then we were suppose to stop trying to get him to eat.  The reason being, after 20 minutes, Tyce was burning more calories than he was eating, so feeding him for an hour to get his 2 oz in was doing the opposite of what we wanted to have happen!

So, we will be going to the hospital on Wed.  Dr. Labrum thinks we will only be there a day and then we should be able to take him home with the feeding tube in.  We are praying he just needs a little jump start and there is nothing else going on!  The feeding tube will be a good test to see if he just needs some help gaining some weight or if there IS something else going on.  If he gains weight with the tube, then we know he just needed a jump start.  If he doesn't gain weight, we know there is something else going on.