Alex had his swallow study today and it was much better than expected. Alex had no apparent aspiration and does not appear to have dysphaegia. He does have a delayed swallow, though, which they feel is being caused by his reflux. This is causing an issue because Alex has decided that he does not need to eat because it hurts him. At each feeding, he is taking in only about 1 1/2-2 ounces. (Way too little for a 5 month old to grow on!) He will nurse enough for the initial let down milk, which he can get easily, then just "flutter suck" to pacify himself after that. It is pretty sad to know that a baby can just give up eating and be okay to wither away like that. I am so glad, and his doctors are too, that we caught this early enough to help get him back on the right track. For now, they are adding another medication to go along with his Prevacid, in hopes of helping his reflux, called Caraphate. Because Alex has allowed my milk supply to dwindle down to slim pickings, they have encouraged me to take Fenugreek to bring back up my supply. I have never taken this before, but I hope it works. I also have to pump to try and help it out. I am waiting for a new pump to be shipped to me and cannot wait until it gets here! Manual pumping is just NO fun when you have to do it several times a day. The doctors recommended us to supplement bottle feed Alex a few times a day with my breast milk fortified with formula to help increase his caloric intake and to thicken it to help with the reflux. He will be on Dr. Brown's bottles with a level 3 nipple. We tried going with a slower flow nipple, but Alex gives up if it is too hard to get out. Sam and I really got a good taste of what Alex is capable of though. After all the milk he took in during his swallow study, he crashed out like he never has before when the study was over. It was great to see how he responds when he feels full. Maybe those days will come more frequently now. Alex's weight will be monitored closely for now and hopefully we will see results quickly.
On a side note: I have to say how incredibly grateful I am for such wonderful friends and family who have been so concerned about me & Alex through this time. We are really blessed! I even had several friends offer their own stored milk for Alex since I was not having good luck with pumping for him. All the phone calls and drop-ins have let me know that we are not in this alone. The thoughts I had of reliving William's situation were haunting, but I am so glad that is not the case and it looks like Alex just has a little bump in the road to overcome and we will not be off course for long. I am so appreciative of that and of everyone. Thank you to you all!
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