Keeping up with Four Joneses!

Austin had an amazing morning!  He was his usual happy self and tolerated full 45mL bottles. After a hospital wide search for green beans, I gave him 1oz. at about 1:45pm.  He began vomiting about 3:15pm.  We got his feeding tube turned off and his IV turned back on, some Zofran for the nausea and he's now resting comfortably. Dr. Kennedy and Annie (the resident doctor following him) were both in to see him.  Dr. Kennedy says NO MORE GREEN BEANS!  It's rare for a gut to not tolerate them and it's weird that he did tolerate them a couple weeks ago, but they seem to be highly correlated with his vomiting.  So, no more purees for a few weeks.  He's getting enough calories and nutrition in his breastmilk/formula so this is really not a concern. So the plan is to let him rest for several hours this evening and then when he starts to perk up a little bit, restart his normal feeding schedule overnight sometime.  Observe him tomorrow and go from there... Prayers for a q

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!  I hope you got to enjoy the beautiful weather, grilling and flip flops!  It's our nation's birthday and most of you know I'm from Independence, Iowa!  We know how to celebrate July 4th!  My only request is you do a little extra celebrating for me! Austin has had a quiet day.  Quiet is good!  He's no longer getting supplemental IV fluid, so we were able to go off the unit and get some fresh air!  He loved it! We continue to observe his stools and tolerance to his feedings.  His stools seem to be moving towards his "normal".  Dr. Kennedy was in this morning and wanted us to stay status quo today.  His enteral (feeding tube) feeds are at normal, but his bottles are only about 1/2 what he normally gets, so he will have 2 goals tomorrow:  tolerate full bottles and green beans!  I think those 2 things are our one way ticket out of here!  One way because we do not want to come back...again!  His demeanor was definitely improv

Austin had an as expected day!  He tolerated his full rate (32mL/hr) of pedialyte by mid-morning today.  Dr. Kennedy made rounds and shared the plan for the next couple days.  A little before 1pm, we restarted Austin's formula/breastmilk at 16mL/hr.  Every 4 hours, we increased his rate by 4mL.  This means he will be at his normal rate tomorrow morning.  Observation of his stools over the next 24-48 hours will tell us how he's tolerating being back at normal. He continues to get the Flagyl 3x/day and his bowel sounds seem to have calmed down.  We continue to be hopeful the cause of the diarrhea and vomiting is being treated!  He will continue the Flagyl for a total of 10 days. Special thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!  We feel them!  A very special thank you to the Joneses who have cared for Max when Brian and I are both at the hospital.  We love you very much and don't know what we would do without you!  Lastly, thank you to Liz (Austin's fi

Let's start with the good...Austin uneventfully got his Broviac (IV access) removed in a very small surgery on June 21st!  The next day, our family participated in the Walk for Amazing to support Children's Hospitals of Minnesota!  We raised over $500 for Austin's Team!  Special thank you to those of you who donated and Brian's family who was able to walk with us!  It was a great day! Max is doing great and loving summer outdoors!  He started gymnastics and is also loving it!  He does gymnastics with cousin Gavin and has filled our Thursday's with fun at Grammy and Call Papa's house afterwards for a little #TumblingThursdays! I'll spare you a bunch of details and get you caught up quickly!  Diarrhea and vomiting has gotten Austin 3 hospital stays in the past 10 days.  The first 2 stays were gut rest and slowly restarting his feeding schedule (both in the tube and orally).  This provided temporary improvement, but ultimately, the