Briggs ~ 5 Months

Where to start... Briggs was 5 months old on Sunday and we have been to more doctor's appointments in his first 5 months of life than we have been to in Brooks' whole life. I am going to make a very long, long, long blog just long!! He is still drinking the vanilla flavored EleCare and doing much better with it. Two weeks ago we went back to see Dr. Dave (the GI doctor) and she was very concerned about is weight gain and his lack of interest in eating. FINALLY, someone gets it and is ready to help!!! We made a plan: 1) Drink EleCare, 2) start taking Periactin (an appetite enhancing medication) and 3) if he did not start eagerly drinking his bottles and acting hungry within 5 days then she was going to "scope" him. Scoping means putting him under anesthesia (not intubated), placing a scope down his throat and looking at his anatomy, looking for signs of reflux and doing biopsy. Luckily he was eating better by that Saturday. I can honestly say that he made a complete 180. I was so happy, relieved and anxious all at the same. The formula that he has been on is $40.00 per can and a can lasts for 3 days. Luckily in the past couple of days God has been looking out for our family and I have had two awesome people help me get the formula at a much better rate. Thank you to The Tatsaks who are able to get it a half price for us and to Dr. Hunt and Lora (her nurse) who got the Similac rep to order them a case each month and it all goes to us!!!! We are so thankful for all the gracious people who are helping us during this time.



Speech/Occupational Therapy

We started ST/OT January 14. They did the evaluation the first day and the second visit was to follow up on our goals and check his weight. OT was there to make sure he was not having a sensory problem and just to evaluate him as he played. She said there was not reason for her to follow him. Her appeared appropriate for his age (putting toys that were made with different textures in his mouth, eating cereal well, playing on his tummy well, etc). ST feed him the cereal and his bottle and watched for signs of aspiration and his coordination. She said that all looked fine but that he did have a weak suck. She said that that was probably due to the oral aversion. He weighed 13 lbs 10 oz at the first visit and 13 lbs 14.5 oz at the second visit. They were pleased with that!! All in all, he has to see ST every other week for a couple visits and then probably once a month for a couple months and that is it.

Cardiology

Dr. Hunt (our pediatrician) heard a murmur at his 4 month check up and wanted us to follow up with a Cardiologist. We had to the same thing with Brooks so we saw the same Cardiologist in Grapevine. They did an echo cardiogram and 12-lead EKG. We get the results while we are there and Dr. Hess said everything looked great. He still has his PFO (a small opening between the left and right atrium that is present while in utero) which will close during his first year of life. He also has an innocent murmur which will never cause any problems. We were very thankful for all the good news!!

Milestones

Briggs is pretty much following right on track as he should be for a 5 month old. He is not rolling over from back to front yet but can roll from front to back. Other than that he babbles all the time, is sleeping through the night well, starting to cereal and veggies and all the normal things that go along with this stage of his life. He is honestly the happiest baby I have ever seen and we are so thankful for that. I could only imagine having to go through what we just went through with him if he was a fussy baby. He has also learned how to do raspberries and he thinks it is so funny.

This is a sweet picture of our two handsome boys!!

Briggs at 5 Months