Every Carolie Counts

The last time we wrote any length of update, was Aly's midweek update but the change since then isn't really significant. 

Let's start with Henry. To the untrained eye (mine, for example), Henry is having no problem since he came off of the CPAP. However, the trained eyes say that he is tachypneic. My untrained vocabulary didn't know what that meant, but it means breathing quickly. This is not good for Henry because, if you have read the title, you know what's coming, every calorie counts. The focus is on growth so it's understandable that the doctor doesn't want him using calories on anything that can be avoided. We are in a bit of a situation with Henry's growing. He is on Omegaven so there is a cap on the fat he can get. We need to be patient and let the Omegaven do its magic because Henry's liver needs the help. So, in summary, Henry needs to turn all the nutrition he is getting into growth and, in the meantime, we wait. One other change that neither Henry or Aly are happy about it is that the non-nutritive feeds have been put on hold until his ostomy output decreases. It's unfortunate but necessary because there is no way to monitor how much he gets in a "non-nutritive feed".

Fortunately, it doesn't take a load of calories to look cute;

Charlie needs to grow too, but he is in a much better position to take more by mouth because his ostomy operation was a much more effective one. Also, since he has been on Omegaven longer, his liver is totally fine. This opens the option to give him the other fat, Intralipids. Charlie will be bigger than Henry, for the first time ever, by the time we next post something. He is getting to stay on his current setup for breathing for a little longer. The doctor sees no rush to change and is very determined that Charlie's next attempt at CPAP will be a successful one. We think she's right and we are really happy with the plan and how patient she is in explaining her plan to us. Charlie got his 3 month injections today. He hasn't yet formed an opinion on vaccinations but he didn't seem to really like getting them. 

Oh, and here is another baby from over 40 years ago. I saw a picture I took of Charlie and it reminded me of this one (of me);

(D)