Ruby Hope McKee Starling

We had our first appointment with a GI specialist.  We really really liked him.  He spent more than hour going over Ruby's history and talking with us.  He also said "I will stand between her and any surgeon who wants to operate."  He did say he might change his mind as time goes on, but for now he really doesn't think surgery for the reflux or for a g-tube is necessary.  He also said Ruby is gaining weight  and looks good. She weighed in at 13lbs 7oz!  He wants us to let her skip a few meals and let her get hungry to see if she takes more.  We have to give her potassium chloride every six hours.  We can skip the feeds in between every once in a while to let her get hungry.  We tried this this afternoon and she took 40 ml from the bottle!  It took her 40 minutes to do so, but she did it!  We can't do this everyday but if she misses a feed every couple days, it's OK.

He also changed the formula we use to fortify breast milk to 27 calories. We are now using Similac Alimentum.  Luckily our insurance covers the formula cost becasue she has a medical need for higher calorie formula.  He also changed her reflux medicine from compounded Prilosec to Prevacid tablets.  We now crush up the Prevacid and dissolve it in water our selves.  The main perk to this is that it's covered by our insurance.  We were having to pay out of pocket to get the prilosec compounded.  Since her diuril and KCl have to be compounded also the costs were adding up.  Hopefully Prevacid will work just as well as the Prilosec.  We don't want to base medical decisions on cost, but it is nice to not have to pay 80 dollars for compounded Prilosec.

The doctor as with every doctor we have seen took the time to tell us we are doing a great job with Ruby.  He said we are obviously part of the reason she's doing so well.  He then told us he's got a couple other babies he'd like for us care for too.  Jokingly of course.  I'm sure he says that to all the parents, but it's nice to hear.  When dealing with feeding stuff it's hard to see the big picture day after day, feeding after feeding.  We are very thankful to be worrying about feeding problems.  Six months ago we weren't sure if we'd get to worry about this stuff.

I know the real reason everyone comes here:

We tried Butternut Squash for the first time yesterday.  So far sweet potatos and pears are her favorites.  She doesn't swallow much yet.  She does "store" it in her cheeks, though.  It kinda funny to give her a bottle and watch pears start running out the sides of her mouth.

Her head control is getting so much better.  She can almost sit up on her own.  Right now if you let go she slowly falls over.  You can also see her new favorite toy.  She loves those singing flowers.  She still loves all ceiling fans the most, but those flowers are a close second.