Appointments

This was another very good week for Brady and our family. He continues to drink large amounts from bottles during the day. It seems like he is having less issues with reflux. He hardly arches and cries at all when he eats.

If anything, we're still working on pacing with him. He gets so excited to eat at times that he doesn't always stop to breathe. Ali and I need to tip his bottle or remove it from his mouth at times to help him stop, swallow and breathe. Once he settles down, he really is doing a good job of drinking entire bottles during every feeding.

We're still connecting him to the feeding equipment at night. A couple of nights we were able to eliminate the last four hours of feeding because he took so much during the day. It really has reduced the stress of giving him enough food during the day. I think we could probably give him the entire amount by bottle if we worked on it all day long. Because we're so active, it's nice to know that we have the evenings to feed him whatever we couldn't during the day.

The biggest change this week is that Brady is now sleeping through the entire night. We put him down around 8:30 p.m. and he will sleep until around 8:30 a.m. Ali still gets up every four hours to pump, and I'm still getting up every four hours to change the milk in his feeding bag. However, it's nice to not get up during the night and feed him a bottle.

This week we had several visitors to our house to see Brady. The school district sent out an early childhood special education teacher and an occupational therapist. They went over his birth history and did an observation of him. They were impressed with how alert he was, how he tracked with his eyes, how he followed voices. and how he could hold his head up on his own. They are going to work with Gillette Children's on his therapy plan. They will be coming back next week to work with Brady and Ali.

A nurse from Children's Hospital (not to be confused with U of M Children's or Gillette Children's) also visited on Tuesday. She also did an exam on Brady and asked Ali a number questions about Brady's development. She was also impressed with Brady's progress. She was a little concerned about Brady's lack of weight gain since he's left the hospital. She will also come back next week to begin treatment on Brady.

Ali has a meeting scheduled with Gillette Children's at the end of May. Instead of coming to our house, we will need to go to their clinic for Brady's treatment. We believe we'll be able to do everything at their location in Burnsville.

We feel very fortunate to have so many people working with Brady and Ali. We're hopeful that the preventative care will make a big difference in his development over the next couple of years.

Ali is bringing Brady back up to the U of M tomorrow to see the surgeon who inserted the G-J tube. They are going to check the incision and make sure everything is functioning properly.

Ali is also bringing Brady back to our pediatrician on Wednesday for a follow up appointment. We'll know more about Brady's weight gain and the feeding plan for him moving forward.

As you can tell, Ali has turned into a full-time secretary, chauffeur, therapist and cheerleader for Brady's recovery. There's still much work to be done. Keep those messages and prayers coming. :)

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady