Molly's Hospitalization

I know there are many of you out there thinking about us and praying for us, so I want to actually give some information on what's happening with Molly.

On Tuesday, Molly had an appointment with Dr Joe to just have her weight check. At her 2 week appointment, Dr Joe noticed that, while she was gaining weight, it wasn't as fast as was to be expected. So we returned and after a small debacle with the scale, Dr Joe was summoned to come talk to us. He came in, carefully checked Molly over and started the conversation with me. He stated that Molly had gain less that 2oz over the 7 day period and we should have seen somewhere around an ounce per day. He had two options: he trusted to send me home with Molly and work extra hard to get the calories into her and see us again in 2 days or we admit her to be followed in the hospital. The admission would include dietary consults, lab work and I/Os to evaluate Molly and ensure there was nothing PHYSICALLY wrong with her. I stated that I wanted what was best and he said hospitalization was the best. The terror in my eyes must have shown, because as he sent me out with our orders, he stated that it would be OK and that some little ones just need that jump start.

So off we went to St Francis South with our "Failure to Thrive" diagnosis and no real idea of how long we may be here. On Tuesday, Molly was evaluated by everyone that walked by and lots of questions were asked. We went over everything all over again with everyone and finally things settled down and we settled in for the day. Around 2pm Molly was taken to the treatment room to have blood drawn from her beautiful little scalp. She had to be poked twice to get the required blood but she was a trooper. She did wonderful. The first day we were here, we spent the day ensuring that Molly ate EVERY 3 HOURS without exception and we tried our best to get her 3 oz. THAT has been easier said than done. She just doesn't have the belly to do it. Our sweet sweet dietitian came to speak with us around 4 and went over all our options and the different ways we could fortify her formula if needed.

By Wednesday morning, she had gained no weight at all and Dr Wolf (Dr Joe's partner) had done his evaluation and decided it was time to change her formula to a 22cal formula (regular is 20cal). She was switched to that and she just hasn't been able to keep her feeds down. She hasn't been able to take even close to 3 ounces (2oz has sometimes tested her little belly) and 95% of the time she vomits lots of this back up. By evening, Molly was showing signs of having lots of bowel discomfort (gas mostly I think) and I asked for some Mylicon drops. Our nurse, Lindsey, called Dr Wolf and spoke to him about it and we were given the OK to give the drops. She must have given him lots more info about our day because when she came back in she stated that he wanted to change the formula again. Now we are back to the Gentlease formula and they are going to mix it to 22 cal and we are going to try our first feed of that around 11:30pm.

Seth seems to be tolerating all this OK. I picked him up from school on Tuesday to let him know what was going on and took him home to Gamma KP and they had a good night. My mom has been staying with him at night. She said he woke up this morning, asked for Ice Age (his fave movie right now) and then asked for Sissy. He always kisses or hugs her in the morning so he was missing his morning lovin'. Today we kept him home and took him to our library to see a fire truck and to play. I went with him and took him to lunch. I came back home in the evening to have dinner with him and to go through his bedtime routine with him. I am trying to make sure I spend time with him so he doesn't feel neglected. It's so super hard though. When I am with Molly all I think about is Seth and I feel guilty for not being with him. But when I am with him, I stress over Molly and her feeds and I feel guilty for not being at the hospital. My goal is to ensure that I am always at the hospital for Molly's rounding doctors and for the dietitian. I am going to try to make sure I am with Seth for bedtime routine and any other time I may be able to get away. It's a good thing I have great family here helping me or this would be terrible!

Lots of information there but I know many of you would like to be kept updated about Molly. I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and I will try to post a little something everyday to make sure those of you who want to know get the information.