My little Cole

Cole

Kurt

Meghan

Molly

Cole


Kurt & Meghan - 6 weeks old


Our 6 week picture - Molly, Kurt, Meghan, Cole

Cole has been growing like a weed. He is the youngest of the 4 babies and my baby of all babies. He has been constipated and looking back on a week of events and some discussion I can see why we ended up where we did..................
Cole had been straining to go to the bathroom quite often but never seemed to quite manage to get out a stool or have a consistent pattern. I would be lying if I thought it was just rock hard stool that concerned me but he was vomiting too. So like the hospital I gave him glycerin suppositories so he could be relieved.
Well, I forgot to tell you the night before ( I think Monday) Cole could have died - very scary,but thank god I was in the room. I was feeding Molly when Cole vomited after I fed him, It sounded like a lot , but I was sitting in the chair with Molly and waited for him to cry,grunt, etc.. Well he didn't .... So I got up still feeding Molly and saw him turning blue. I had a moment of oh shit and decided to chuck Molly's bottle, place her quickly not softly into Meghan's side of the bed between Meghan and the wedge and pick up Cole. I gave him many back blows, and started sucking all kinds of milk from his nose and mouth and did it all over again till he cried and regained color. Needless to say I checked on him quite a lot over the next hour feeding Molly and Kurt and wondered if I should spend the night in his room. Oh well .... I didn't ...
But as the story goes he was blocked up and was going that way again and so was Meghan .... So I called the doctor & the call was to give 1 tablespoon of Karo syrup in their bottles 2X's a day and let them demand feed no longer than 51/2 hours between feedings. OK good an answer to this problem......
So My kids were chugging right along on a 4 hour schedule with Meghan eating 100ml, Cole at 90ml, Kurt 90ml and Molly at 80ml. I increased there feeds by 10ml (Monday) and started the Karo Syrup in 2 bottles throughout the day yesterday (Tuesday).They were all waking up early to eat.
Well today(Wednesday), .......They are starting to get sluggish and not eat well and not wake up. ( just a few feeding) So I fed them at the regular 1/2 hour time limit and if they ate 60+ I would call it o.k.. So I went to a 41/2 hour schedule at 8 p.m.tonight ( Wednesday night) ...................... we will see - it's trial and error ..................... So Last night (Wednesday), the babies fussed from 10:30 till Chris fed them at 11:30-1:30 (starting to become a habit.- the fussing) then I set my alarm for 4:15.................... Megan started fussing at 3:45... .so much for that Idea of letting them sleep through, so I got up, got the bottles and headed for their room ................ all of them were out cold................ so I ...... fed them ........ remind me never to do that again ..... so everyone ate 1/2 their bottles at this feeding time ( I could not feed some we'd be a mess in the a.m. )
Well I can recall today (Thursday) that they were very sleepy after the Karo bottles .. which were at Chris's feeding last night and this afternoon. plus bath time ....... So again I called the Doctor
I felt like a new mom .... repeatedly questioned my M.D. about the dosage of Karo and further suggestions to this high octane syrup that seemed to just make feeding time more painful and the kids more sleepy (not a bad side effect if you just have one baby and could try letting it sleep through the night without major consequences. )
So its Thursday afternoon when I just happened to walk into the room where Cole is being burped by my help and I see him arch way back, and start to foam at the mouth. Of course without hesitation I grabbed him, starting suctioning his mouth, requested my help to go to the nearest store and by my favorite glycerin suppository for him. He was relieved, but the scary thing was his stool was all liquid and very green ............ actually it shot across the room as I massaged his belly. (really resolve does work).
Then I did a familiar test Dr. Herbers did on my son Jason over 4 years ago - this reaction prompted me to believe Cole has pyloric stenosis. I took the M.D. instructions down and awaited for Cole to have them......... At 3a.m Cole vomited his feedings again and I packed a bag, awoke Chris and went to St. John's ER. While I was driving I recalled thinking should I go to Children's hospital instead, I hope this isn't true and Dad you better watch over him. Well at 7a.m. the diagnosis was made and at 11a.m. his surgery was being performed. At 4:30 Cole made it to recovery and was placed in the PICU overnight for observation. He had a few apnea spells post surgery and needed a little caffeine for heart rate drops. All in all he is home and recovering well.

Meghan is next we will watch her to see what happens over the next few weeks.